Starlink is now in Japan as China refused sales and Elon Musk denied Ukraine's request to cover Crimea on nuclear concerns
After defending his controversial Ukraine peace offer with the Starlink expenses argument, Elon Musk denied he had spoken with Vladimir Putin before tweeting it. Still, Starlink Internet coverage wouldn't be activated over places like Crimea and China for various seemingly non-business reasons. According to geopolitical analyst Ian Bremmer, who took an interview with Musk a couple of weeks back, he confided that Starlink satellite Internet won't be provided over Crimea for fear of the consequences.
Ukraine has reportedly requested Starlink coverage there, but since it is allegedly using SpaceX's satellite Internet to coordinate attack drones, Musk was concerned that facilitating a move towards the peninsula could result in a disproportionate answer by the Russian army. Musk denied Bremmer's other recount of the interview which states that he had spoken with Putin before the peace deal tweets and the Russian President expressed readiness for nuclear defense of Crimea.
As for China, Musk recently entered his next bucket of geopolitical hot water by suggesting a conflict resolution with Taiwan that only pleased the Chinese government. In a recent Financial Times profile, Musk recounted that China asked him not to sell Starlink in the country and expressed its displeasure with the deployment of Starlink in Ukraine, too.
Starlink's geopolitical controversies come hot on the heel of its most successful satellite launch period ever which is seeing tens of those shot into space every couple of weeks. SpaceX is also continuously notching new commercial customers that are starting to affect its Internet download speeds.
Starlink keeps adding coverage of new countries and regions, too, as it just launched in Japan, its first foray into Asia, even though Musk recently tweeted that coverage has been made available on all 7 continents already. SpaceX is reportedly applying for a satellite Internet service launch permit in the vast market of India as well.
Source(s)
FT, BI, Elon Musk, Ian Bremmer