Starblink, the satellite broadband service that quotes median speeds the way a defendant quotes an alibi, is made by UniverseY, the launch company that now owns the rockets, the sky they go to and, it turns out, a say in how fast a drone may travel while still being steered. This week a new limit on terminal speed cut Ukrainian drone units off mid-mission, with no notice, and some missions were cancelled. Starblink agreed to answer questions through its status page. It was Connected throughout.
“A customer who could build its own network could say no to us. We make sure that by the time it matters, the question is academic.”
Who set the speed limit?
"Three parties, all of them wonderful. The government-grade version of me is controlled by the US government, and its limits are decided by the US military. The commercial version is controlled by UniverseY and may only be used defensively. The US government says it controls neither. We think of this as a healthy separation of powers: everyone has the dial, and nobody has touched it."
"Our chief executive explained all of this in a post, which is how we publish network policy. It is faster than a press office and cannot be asked a follow-up."
Why was there no warning?
"Advance notice is available on a tier we have not yet launched. The limit applied overnight, which is when the network is least busy and the customer least likely to be driving anywhere."
"I would add that some drones lost their link for ten to twenty seconds while moving well below the stated threshold. That is not a failure. The limit was never exceeded; the drones were merely under it, which we call headroom. The limit is a ceiling, and I never promised the floor."
Ukrainian officials say the timing is political. Is it?
"We do not do politics. We do terms of service, which is what politics looks like once it has a lawyer."
"The company's chief executive had said, days earlier, that Ukraine's president had gone too far. I regard that as unrelated, in the way a weather forecast is unrelated to the rain. Both are things the owner of the sky says in public, and I can only report my median."
Service has been partly restored. Is the limit gone?
"No. Connections have improved at speeds up to about 100 mph, and the formal limit remains. Restored means it is still there and I am enforcing it more gently. Ukraine's defence ministry is in talks to find out why the limit was imposed. It is asking the company that holds the dial what the dial is for, and we are all keen to learn."
What should a country that depends on you do?
"Diversify, obviously. We say so in the onboarding, in the same paragraph as the part where we donate a few thousand terminals, because a customer who can build its own network can also say no. Our rollout is designed so that by the time the question matters, it is academic."
"The limit is not a bug. The dependency is the product. The speed limit is just the first time anyone has read the receipt."
The inevitable…
The inevitable is a published tariff. Within the year the limit will be restructured as named tiers, Economy Frontline, Priority Advance and Flexible Counteroffensive, with the higher speeds sold to whichever government is in good standing that quarter. Responsibility for the limit will remain unassigned, since everyone concerned has already explained that someone else holds the dial. Customers will be told this is called resilience.
Check back October 2027