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>(being paid for by the US, after Musk initially provided free service early in the war after a Ukrainian request) This is not true. https://news.ycombinator.c
by rasz 2y ago
>(being paid for by the US, after Musk initially provided free service early in the war after a Ukrainian request)
This is not true. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40250680 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40250680 :
1 Musk never provided free service for Ukraine. All dishes have subscription. What Musk alluded to was "free upgrade" while demanding Ukrainians start paying for Mobile Priority plans.
2 "As of October 2022 there were 18k Starlink terminals in Ukraine. At the time State Department (USAID) paid for ~2K units, Poland paid for >12K units – over half of all terminals came from one relatively poor EU country.
December 2022 number rose to 22K. Apparently as of June 2023 there are >40K terminals in use, with USAID share rising to at least ~5K."
US paid for 1/8 of all terminals up to June 2023. I stopped tracking numbers last year.
- tomekf 2y agoFYI: Delivering terminal is one thing, paying for subscription is another. Poland pays for over 20k starlink terminals subscription. Every month: https://www.barrons.com/news/poland-says-funding-20-000-starlink-devices-for-ukraine-8b667698 https://www.barrons.com/news/poland-says-funding-20-000-star... Multiple nations delivered them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russo-Ukrainia...
- inemesitaffia 2y agoEDIT: I've replied this claim before, it's just untrue 1. isn't true. There were several free dishes and dishes with free subscriptions. Every single round dish was delivered free. i.e every dish delivered in February 2022 Many people who received equipment after putting up a deposit who claimed they couldn't cover the cost of the equipment got it waived. If you stopped paying your bill it would still keep working for months. Some people even paid in full and asked for a waiver and refund. The first set of USAID equipment was delivered in late March/Early April 2022 and SpaceX covered the subscription in full for every one of them. In 2022, most dishes were bought by Poland. In 2024, most are privately purchased. The gall to think a provider will charge a military user civilian prices for services is ridiculous especially with all the stuff that has gone down and the extra expectations. You shouldn't be paying less than you pay OneWeb or SatCube period. I won't be surprised if some people have attempted warranty replacements. I saw someone complaining they couldn't get their dish price waived in 2023.