Ukraine engineer talks testing SpaceX’s new Starlink service

Kutkov says, "I honestly didn't believe it would work." "I figured there could be some blockage issues, as well as issues with my Dishy." But no, it was just a coincidence. I've got a lot of speed and a lot of connectedness."

Kutkov had a Starlink dish for a few months but had not been able to utilise it. He acquired his off eBay — where dishes run from $2,000 to $3,000 — in order to reverse engineer the device and learn more about it as a software and communications expert. The person who sold him the dish transferred his US account to Kutkov, but Kutkov couldn't do much with it because Starlink service wasn't yet available in Ukraine.

He released an article about his reverse engineering attempts in late 2021, which he claims led to some contacts within SpaceX. He also attempted to change his account's address from a US address to his own in Ukraine, but SpaceX support informed him that his location was not supported. Kutkov paid for the account anyhow, saying he did so "to keep service alive for my experiments and... just in case."

Everything changed this week, though. Ukraine's vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted at SpaceX CEO Elon Musk over the weekend, requesting that his company's Starlink service be made available to Ukraine to aid in the battle against the Russian invasion. Starlink is SpaceX's internet-from-space initiative, which envisions deploying tens of thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit to beam broadband to the ground. Individuals must have one of SpaceX's user terminals or dishes to access the system. (Kutkov refers to his as Dishy, a play on SpaceX's antenna nickname, Dishy McFlatface.) SpaceX's satellites will also need to link to ground-based gateways that are connected to existing fiber-optic infrastructure.

When Musk replied to Fedorov's tweet by stating that the Starlink service was now operational in Ukraine, Kutkov decided to reactivate his account. He attempted to link his dish to his account, but it initially failed. However, Kutkov claims that SpaceX support contacted him and assured him that his account should now be connected. Kutkov hung his dish outside his window to prove that the service was running on Monday night, shortly after Fedorov tweeted a picture of a truckload of Starlink dishes that had arrived in Ukraine.

He claimed to be able to attain a top speed of more than 200 Mbps in a couple of tweets showcasing his download speeds. At any given time, SpaceX has roughly 2,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit, with a handful orbiting above Ukraine. Furthermore, an unofficial map of Starlink's architecture suggests that the satellites are connected through gateways in a few bordering Ukrainian countries, which should assist keep the satellites connected.

He says he had a number of messages from Ukrainian residents wondering where they might acquire a Starlink dish after he sent his tweets, and he had to clarify that his came from eBay. He adds he doesn't know how the Ukrainian government intends to distribute the meals, admitting that such a task could be tough at the moment. He believes that air sirens warning of oncoming assaults have become more frequent, and that adjacent explosions have been more frequent.

"I saw real explosions while living here in Eastern Kyiv," he recalls. "The first explosion happened at four a.m., while I was sleeping, so it's kind of crazy." Our neighbourhood was rocked by thunderous explosions the other day. "Our home was trembling." He claims that he and his family have a basement where they seek refuge during raids.

Despite Russia's orders for Kyiv residents to leave the city and relocate to other regions, Kutkov claims he has no plans to leave. Kutkov, a former resident of Crimea, says he and his wife had already relocated to avoid a Russian invasion, and he has no plans to do it again. "We're going to remain firm and defend our property, and I believe we'll win," he says.