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Ukraine\u2019s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, started testing direct-to-cell (DTC) service satellite messaging services with Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mobile phones with 4G or LTE networks will be connected directly to Starlink satellites in orbit so they can send and receive text messages. The eventual network, to launch mid-2026, will give Ukrainians access to cell service in mountainous and rural areas of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Experts told Euronews Next that the partnership is \u201ca coherent move\u201d for Ukraine despite deepening the country\u2019s reliance on Musk, who has threatened in the past to shut down services in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are obviously concerns about tech sovereignty because then you will only be depending on one provider, Starlink \u2026 but sovereignty at this point becomes a second priority \u2026 priority number one is winning the war,\u201d said Dario Garcia de Viedma, fellow of technology and digital policy at the Elcano Royal Institute think tank in Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine is definitely making sovereignty concessions to win the war and so is Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n
An \u2018extreme reliance\u2019 on Starlink in Ukraine<\/p>\n
Starlink is a constellation of over 7,800 satellites<\/a> that orbit roughly 550 kilometres from the Earth to deliver high-speed internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Each transmits data like a fiber optic cable from the satellites to ground receivers, making the internet accessible in remote places where current telephone towers would be difficult to build.\u00a0<\/p>\n The advantage of Starlink in Ukraine is that the terminals that receive the signal are \u201crelatively small, the size of a book,\u201d making them easy to transport, said Jan Frederik Slijkerman, senior credit sector strategist at the forecaster ING Think<\/p>\n \u201c[Starlink] has excellent connectivity, good portability and normal pricing for broadband,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine\u2019s minister for digital transformation in Ukraine, appealed to Musk two days after the Russian escalation in February 2022 for Starlink terminals. The country had its first kits<\/a>, comprised of the terminals, a kickstand, a router and various cables, delivered six days later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n An update from Fedorov in April said 50,000 Starlink terminals<\/a> in Ukraine are being used to keep the country\u2019s railways, schools and hospitals online in case the power goes out following a Russian attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starlink services have also been used by the Ukrainian military to communicate<\/a> on the ground, such as in the 2022 Aerorozvidka mission against Russian forces that used Starlink to keep Delta online, the military\u2019s combat control and information processing system, during power outages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garcia de Viedma said this has created an \u201cextreme reliance\u201d on Starlink\u2019s satellite internet during the war that cannot be changed for a new alternative in the short term.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnless [Ukrainian forces] communicate with smoke or with pigeons, I think that there\u2019s no way they can win the war without communication – so the dependence is already there,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In March, reports surfaced that Musk<\/a> was considering turning off the Starlink terminals to force Ukraine to sign a $500 billion (\u20ac430.34 billion) deal with US President Donald Trump on rare earth minerals.\u00a0<\/p>\n