标题: 2022.04.29 卫星互联网在乌克兰成为热门新商品 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-5-2 20:15 标题: 2022.04.29 卫星互联网在乌克兰成为热门新商品 Daily chart
Satellite internet is a hot new commodity in Ukraine
Starlink is being used by the military and hospitals, but its signal is weakest on the front line
Apr 29th 2022
The night skies above Europe are dotted with satellites. Some beam high-speed internet down to Earth. On February 26th, responding to a plea from the Ukrainian government, SpaceX, a rocketry firm founded by Elon Musk, shipped thousands of Starlink dishes to the war zone. Within a month the number of Ukrainian downloads of the Starlink application, used to connect computers and phones to dishes and thus to satellite internet signals, rose from zero to 215,000 (representing 58% of the worldwide total).
Satellite internet has been around for decades. In the dotcom boom, several companies tried to commercialise it and went bust. It is generally slow and expensive, and thus mostly used as a backup when nothing better is available. Starlink is an attempt to improve the technology. By flying thousands of satellites in low orbits, rather than a few in high ones, it is able to offer swifter connections. Before Russia’s invasion, Mr Musk had intended to provide internet to people living in rural areas unreachable by cables and cell towers. The war has become another testing ground.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said it suspects Russia is seeking to destroy communication lines. Since the outbreak of war, internet connectivity has been spotty. Russian forces have struck television towers in Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv. On March 21st, Mariupol went offline after troops bombed the offices of Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest internet provider and the last to offer service in the besieged city.
According to Apptopia, a data company, Starlink has roughly 150,000 active daily users in Ukraine. News reports claim that Starlink is aiding military communication. The Daily Telegraph reported that Ukrainian forces are using Starlink to gather intelligence and track targets for drone strikes. Viktor Liashko, Ukraine’s health minister, said hospitals are avoiding blackouts by tapping into its signals. Yet connectivity is weakest in eastern Ukraine, the renewed focus of Russia’s attack. There, orbiting satellites are further from their ground stations. On April 21st, SpaceX launched 53 more satellites into orbit. Better coverage will make Starlink only more useful. ■
