- [Narrator] Starlink.
- [Speaker] Separation confirmed.
- [Narrator] Elon Musk's low orbit satellite service
has been essential to Ukraine's operations
in the war against Russia.
Offering reliable internet amid cell tower
and power outages.
- Starlink today is the backbone of the
Ukrainian military communications.
- [Narrator] Now, Ukrainian officials claim
that Russia has been using 1000s
of Starlink terminals within Ukraine.
And has had access to the service in occupied territories
for quite some time.
But Starlink and Musk say that they don't sell to,
or work with Russia.
So how does Starlink operate,
and what can be done to stop Russia from using it?
Here's what we know.
- [Speaker] And lift off of Starlink 513.
Go Falcon. Go Starlink.
- [Narrator] This rocket
is taking starlink satellites to space,
where they will enter orbits near Earth.
Starlink consists of thousands of satellites
that power high speed internet connections
to terminals on the ground
that users can buy and set up on their own.
As Musk says...
- There's just two instructions
and they can be done in either order.
Point at sky, Plug in.
- [Narrator] Starlink sells these terminals
and service directly,
and through distributors and retailers
like Home Depot in the US.
SpaceX, which owns Starlink,
has been pushing to find users in remote areas
that aren't well served by traditional internet providers.
- Starlink was the easiest
and most available solution that met the need
to provide broadband in these areas
with no other options from the ground were available.
- [Narrator] Terminals can provide service
from a specific location or on the move,
like in a car or on a boat.
- One way to look at low earth orbit broadband
is to draw a comparison with your cell phone.
You can move around with that phone,
and you are connecting to different cell phone towers.
In some ways, systems like Starlink are the reverse of that,
where you are relatively stationary on Earth,
and the satellites which can orbit the earth in 90 minutes,
they are the ones that are moving.
- [Narrator] With around 5,400 satellites in orbit
all around the earth,
Starlink says it works almost anywhere in the world.
But that doesn't mean you can use the service
anywhere in the world.
It can't operate in countries where it isn't licensed.
- The ability of Starlink
to do what we could call geofencing,
which is limit service to certain geographical areas,
is really important to how Starlink operates
so that the systems are not offering service
where they're not supposed to be offering service.
- [Narrator] Starlink says it does not operate
or sell terminals in Russia.
And the Kremlin said in a statement
that Starlink is not authorized there.
(speaking in foreign language)
But, Ukraine says that Russia is acquiring terminals
through private firms that buy them through intermediaries,
and delivering them to Russia via neighboring countries.
Russian forces then operate them in occupied territories
in Ukraine, officials say.
- [Speaker] Liftoff.
- [Narrator] So what can Starlink do
to limit Russia's use of its service?
Starlink has said that it takes steps
to deactivate terminals if the company determines
that they are being used by unauthorized parties.
To keep track of its terminals,
Starlink collects different pieces of information.
It attains some user data during the authentication process,
and can track the location of the terminal.
According to the company's website,
terminals sold through authorized sellers
also have a unique ID in order to activate a connection.
But even with that,
pinpointing information about specific terminals
in an area that's using a lot of terminals
can be a challenge.
Last year, the Ukrainian government said
that there are about 42,000 terminals
operating in the country.
- Just knowing a terminal is in a specific location
as opposed to across the street from that,
would still make it very challenging
for Starlink to say, "These are being used by Ukrainians,
and then these are being used by Russian forces."
- [Narrator] If Starlink is able to pinpoint users
it does not want on its network,
it could have some options for blocking them out
Swope says.
- One thought on a scenario would be
to look at how cybersecurity
and information technology professionals
tackle a same issue,
and that process is called an allow list.
So instead of trying to isolate
who you don't want on your network,
you identify who you do want on your network,
and then only those on the allow list
in that geographical area can use the Starlink service.
- But, there are still a lot of unknowns.
It isn't clear how SpaceX decides where in Ukraine
to provide Starlink service and where to cut it off.
The company has a contract with the Pentagon
to provide service in the country,
but officials haven't disclosed
whether military planners instruct SpaceX
about where they should target service.
(speaking in foreign language)