How Is Elon Musk's Starlink Service Working Out In Ukraine? An Engineer Shares His Experience

A Ukrainian engineer has said Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Starlink service was providing "really good (internet) connectivity" in the country, which is under attack from neighboring Russia, The Verge reported on Tuesday.

What Happened: Oleg Kutkov, a software and communications engineer based in Kyiv, had bought a Starlink dish from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) a few months ago but was not able to use it as there was no service in the country then.

The top speed was >200 Mbps for a while.

— Oleg Kutkov (@olegkutkov) February 28, 2022

On Monday, Kutkov connected to the service in his second attempt and found it delivered “good speed, and really good connectivity", according to the report.

Starlink is a SpaceX venture designed to beam down high-speed internet, especially in remote areas including war-ravaged regions, from satellites in orbit to Earth.

See Also: Elon Musk Delivers Starlink Satellites To Ukraine For Maintaining Internet Amid Invasion

Why It Matters: Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov had on Saturday made a direct plea to Musk via Twitter, requesting the billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO  to provide Starlink stations.

Musk agreed to the request that same day, tweeting, "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route."

See Also: Elon Musk Offers Starlink Help To Tonga Amid Internet Crisis But Here's Why He Needs A 'Clear Confirmation'

Fedorov on Tuesday tweeted to show a military truck carrying a cargo of Starlink terminals.

“Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk,” Fedorov tweeted, to which Musk responded, “You are most welcome.”

Starlink is known to have launched over 2,000 satellites. The company hopes to have 4,425 satellites in orbit by 2024. The Federal Communications Commission has approved 11,943 satellites to be launched by Starlink.