Starlink operations in Ukraine have already cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year, Elon Musk said. satellite Internet will cost nearly $400 million in 2023.

In a post on Twitter, Elon Musk said that of the 25,300 terminals sent to Ukraine, only 10,630 are paying for the service.

Yesterday, however, Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX will continue to fund operations in Ukraine, despite the fact that Starlink is losing money. There are concerns within the EU that Elon Musk could still cut off service.

“For the moment, let’s be happy that he’s paying for it. But we need to be safe,” an EU official told the Financial Times, “and the Ukrainians are very worried that he will still cut it off.”

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told Politico that Ukraine’s Internet access should not remain in the hands of a “superpower” who could “wake up one day and say, ‘This is no longer what I want to do anymore, so be it. And the next day, Ukrainians may find themselves without the Internet. I think that might be a better way, as a contractual agreement, for example, that a coalition of countries could buy a service from Mr. Elon Musk, the Starlink service, and then offer it to the Ukrainians and continue.”

A formal contract would obligate SpaceX to provide the service in Ukraine. These discussions also come amid reports from Kiev of Starlink equipment being down on the front lines in recent weeks.

The EU is also exploring other satellite connectivity options. The Pentagon disclosed it is in talks with SpaceX about funding the service, while also exploring other alternatives.

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In July, when SpaceX’s Starlink Internet first announced it was going live with mobile satellite services, it could only use the 2 GHz band.

In its filing, SpaceX said, “By allowing SpaceX to use more spectrum resources, the FCC can give U.S. users in all locations a wider choice of mobile satellite services and ensure that consumers can fully enjoy the development of IoT applications and devices.”

SpaceX plans to use the 1.6 GHz and 2 GHz bands for upload data links and the 2.4 GHz band for downlink data links. The company said this will allow Starlink “to support a range of mobile satellite services, allowing SpaceX to build a compelling range of products. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, Starlink services can meet the connectivity needs of U.S. users.”

SpaceX said the requested additional spectrum resources will also enable Starlink’s mobile satellite services to have a latency of fewer than 50 milliseconds and increase the data capacity of the entire Starlink network.

The company added: “SpaceX will ensure that every fixed user anywhere will be able to connect to multiple satellites, with greater system flexibility to provide robust connectivity even during data congestion in the corresponding frequency bands.”

SpaceX also emphasized that the Starlink satellite network can operate in the radio band without interfering with other satellite operators, including Globalstar. SpaceX claims that Globalstar “enjoys partial exclusivity in the 1.6 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands,” but the FCC has not granted Globalstar “exclusive use of the relevant frequency bands in perpetuity.

SpaceX did not mention its partner T-Mobile in the filing, and last month SpaceX announced plans to use its existing Starlink network to provide SMS messaging and voice calling and data services to T-Mobile cellphone users when they are not in service.

The two companies will begin the first phase of testing at the end of next year, and the subsequent Starlink satellite network will use different radio spectrums, including the 1.91 to 1.995 GHz band used by T-Mobile. In this way, SpaceX’s Starlink network can send data to many existing T-Mobile phones, and most users will be able to use the mobile satellite service without having to buy new equipment.

But it is not clear how SpaceX will use the Starlink network to launch other mobile satellite services to consumers. In its filing, the company said only that SpaceX plans to apply for a blanket license to operate “subscriber terminals” for the upcoming service. As a result, consumers other than T-Mobile subscribers may need to purchase equipment to use the Starlink network’s mobile satellite services.

The filing also states that SpaceX has designed a “modular payload” that can be installed on first-generation Starlink satellites to enable radio communications in the 1.6 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands.

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Meanwhile, Starlink has outperformed local broadband Internet providers in most of the countries it serves, but its U.S. subscribers had also experienced deteriorating speeds as the speed of a new spacecraft launched via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket competed with the growth of U.S. users.

Now, strong U.S. download speeds appear to be returning, as some users are sharing new results on the social media platform Reddit.

The highest Starlink download speed shared on Reddit in the past week came from a user who recently received an antenna unit from SpaceX. The user, named Parrot-Dude, posted a jaw-dropping 288Mbps download speed for his Starlink connection, the highest speed in the recent sample.

Parrot-Dude wasn’t the only one to see his download speed approaching 300Mbps. Another Reddit user, known as Nicknamethomas, posted a screenshot from the popular speed testing app Ookla showing a download speed of 283 Mbps. The user went on to add that the test was conducted in upstate New York and that download speeds had “significantly” improved after the Starlink firmware update.

Another user from North America also shared that their download and upload speeds have improved since Starlink’s latest firmware update, with download speeds of 250 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps in central Maine.

Starlink download test results from Kentucky also reflect this phenomenon, with Reddit user PositiveSplit6483 sharing that in less than a day of testing, Starlink achieved download speeds of 243 Mbps and upload speeds of 32 Mbps, a set of results that the user described as “my best speeds in Northern Kentucky. .” The same user achieved 218 Mbps download and 32 Mbps upload in an earlier test.

RO4DHOG, a user from Southern California, used a unique setup for their antenna that saw the user terminal mounted on a pole inside the skylight well. This arrangement saw download speeds of 268Mbps in the first test after installation, then quickly dropped off, RO4DHOG explained, with speeds dropping to between 150Mbps and 80Mbps since the first run.

Finally, a Starlink user in South Mississippi breathed a sigh of relief when their download speed increased to 190 Mbps. User GetOffMyGrassBrats revealed that the recent run was the fastest speed their Starlink terminal had performed since the 255 Mbps speed test in March 2020. An earlier post by the same user outlined download speeds averaging 50 Mbps during off-peak hours and 20 to 30 Mbps during peak hours.

GetOffMyGrassBrats shared the same experience with several other users from different states. For example, one user from South Georgia shared that since late in the week, they have regularly encountered speeds of 200 Mbps during off-peak hours and 80 Mbps during peak hours. However, the fastest download speeds we encountered today came from a Starlink user in a remote area of Wyoming, who revealed that while their “typical” download speed was 180 Mbps, they have now managed to reach 311 Mbps.

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