Musk says SpaceX cannot fund Ukraine's Starlink internet indefinitely

https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-spacex-cannot-fund-ukraines-starlink-internet-indefinitely-2022-10-14/

by jmeister • 4 years ago

14 13 4 years ago

reuters.com

jmeister• 4 years ago

Elon Musk suggests he is pulling internet service from Ukraine after ambassador told him to ‘f** off’

‘We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine,’ says Space X

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-starlink-intern...

TillE• 4 years ago

Absolutely incredible to make a big deal about "donating" all this stuff, and then decide what you actually want is a big fat Pentagon contract.

Huh13374• 4 years ago

iIf the war keeps going for a decade or longer, is SpaceX supposed to provide free service forever?

I don't want to take Musk's side here, but I don't think your take is entirely justified too. They donated a lot of hardware and free service for more than half a year. That's a lot, and I don't think donating that much means they have to keep donating forever.

rbanffy3• 4 years ago

More relevant than that, the constellation is already deployed and serving the rest of the planet's surface. What is the cost (not in terms of lost revenue, but in terms of actual operational cost) of supporting Ukraine?

I'm assuming the cost is marginal. What he's concerned about is of becoming a military target, something he should have considered before he decided to become a military telco service provider.

z72• 4 years ago

From the article:

"SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable," Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday.

The anti-Musk sentiment is reaching ludicrous levels.

z72• 4 years ago

You can downvote me, but can you explain your point?

Musk has provided $80 million in Starlink services for free - is your claim that he was supposed to continue this indefinitely?

He explicitly mentions not asking the Pentagon to recoup the $80 million, but to fund the continuing donations of Starlink - how is he intending to profit with this proposal financially, as you imply?

I also did not see him "make a big deal" about his Starlink donations.

revolutukr• 4 years ago

Elon Musk seems to be playing a great long-con on the American tax payer. $300m per launch, $16bn in hand-outs.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/12/spacex-seeks-16-bi...

bamboozled• 4 years ago

“Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” tweeted Andrij Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany. “The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing Tesla crap. So good luck to you.”

I guess that kicked it all off.

Musk says SpaceX cannot fund Ukraine's Starlink internet indefinitely

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