A Starlink competitor funded by Bill Gates criticized Elon Musk harshly in the recent period. You guessed right. The criticism is connected to the Ukrainian situation and to Elon Musk’s brief decision to cut off Starlink’s service there.
Starlink has played a crucial role in Ukraine’s war. It helped them communicate at times when there were no other means of communication. However, after months of providing the service to Ukraine for free, Elon Musk decided to ask the US government for payment.
Starlink Competitor Who Has Ties To Bill Gates Blasts Elon Musk
Just hours after filing the request, Elon Musk decided to withdraw it. Critics widely see this as a move where he just wanted to point out his importance in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainian officials seemed to underestimate the importance of Starlink. They attacked Elon Musk openly when he suggested a possible solution for the situation there. After the attacks, they put him on a ‘blacklist’ and Ukrainian officials even addressed him publicly on Twitter.
Even though Elon Musk now continues providing Starlink internet connection to Ukraine for free, he still receives criticism. The Bill Gates funded competitor to Starlink, Kymeta, is one of them.
Kymeta’s chief development officer, Bill Marks says that Kymeta also has sold and donated its technology to Ukraine. However, he says, the wide public is now aware of their help. Furthermore, he pointed out that Elon Musk has ‘blood on his hands’ for making the threats to cut off Starlink.
Of course, he then pointed out the quality of Kymeta and said the company is much better than Starlink. He pointed out that Kymeta is at the moment working with The Department of Defense. He even explained that Kymeta will shortly start to work with NATO as well.
“There are big differences between our terminals and the Starlink terminals. Besides the fact that we would never shut them off, our terminals work on the move.” – Marks said.
Elon Musk initially made the announcement that he requests money from the US government by sending them a letter.
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine. Or even fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.” – Elon Musk wrote in a letter to the Pentagon.
In the letter, Elon Musk also included the letter sent to him by the Ukrainian military general, Valerii Zaluzhniy. In that letter, the general seeked an additional 8000 Starlink terminals.
Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX is losing up to $20 million per month by supporting Ukraine. Furthermore, he revealed that he didn’t ask for complete payment. He only asked for an amount that is less than what a new GPS satellite .
