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SpaceX is busy transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station these days, but that’s not all Elon Musk’s aerospace company does. It is also preparing for an effort to colonize Mars and deploy a satellite internet constellation called Starlink. You can get Starlink Internet in a few places, but Russia doesn’t want any of its citizens to go through the SpaceX system as it grows. In fact, the country has launched the idea of fining people who use Starlink or other foreign satellite internet services.
Starlink is based on the same basic principle as traditional satellite internet: the subscriber on the ground has an antenna that he points upwards to communicate with the space network. Services like Hughes and ViaSat have been around for years, offering mediocre speeds for an exorbitant amount of money. You can’t blame them too much – launching satellites is expensive unless you’re SpaceX.
The company is constantly launching bundles of 60 Starlink satellites aboard its Falcon 9 rockets, which are much easier and cheaper to launch thanks to SpaceX’s reusable design. There are currently nearly 1,000 nodes in the Starlink network, but the company is approved for 12,000 total satellites to provide faster speeds and cable-like latency. As that number approaches, Starlink should be available globally, but Russian citizens might find their government discouraging the use of Starlink.
Russia is heavily invested in monitoring and controlling Internet traffic between its inhabitants. In the Russian edition of Popular mechanics, a report claims the government is considering fines for anyone using Starlink or a similar “Western” satellite Internet service. Fines can range from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles ($ 135 to $ 405) for people who use Starlink. Businesses could see fines of 500,000 to 1 million rubles (6,750 to 13,500 dollars).
What a SpaceX Starlink satellite looks like in orbit.
Any traffic passing through a satellite Internet service will bypass any active controls or surveillance programs in Russia. Russia’s chief of spaceflight, Dmitry Rogozin, has also criticized the US government’s support for SpaceX, which he sees as “predatory” and aimed at projecting US power around the world. However, satellite internet might be unavoidable, as even people in rural areas expect reliable connectivity. A recent survey found that over half of Americans were at least willing to consider switching to Starlink when it’s available in their area – that’s how much we all hate our ISPs.
Russia has started planning for a national satellite internet platform called Sphere, which could start launching as early as 2024. However, the cost of deploying such a system with Russia’s current launch assets could be prohibitive.
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