Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday said Starlink had withdrawn the funding request that his company made to Pentagon, seeking funds for providing satellite broadband service in the war-ravaged country of Ukraine.
Taking to Twitter, Musk officially announced the withdrawal by stating, “SpaceX has already withdrawn its request for funding.”
“To be precise, 25,300 terminals were sent to Ukraine, but, at present, only 10,630 are paying for service,” he added.
SpaceX has already withdrawn its request for funding
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2022
The Starlink founder was responding to a tweet that stated Pentagon was mulling paying Musk and Starlink for its services.
As reported by WION, hours before the withdrawal, several big media houses had carried the story, saying Pentagon had finally come around the decision of paying Musk.
Read more: Pentagon considering funding Starlink network in Ukraine: Report
Not too long ago, Musk said that SpaceX, the company which operates Starlink could not fund the internet network in Ukraine indefinitely.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” Musk tweeted last week.
Read more: Musk says ‘unreasonable’ to expect Starlink to fund services in Ukraine indefinitely
At the time, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh also informed that the US Department of Defense was in contact with Musk on the matter.
“We can confirm the department received correspondence from SpaceX about the funding of… their satellite communications product in Ukraine. We remain in communication with SpaceX about this and other topics,” Singh said in a statement.
SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2022
Thus, the sudden withdrawal of the proposal, which was submitted in September has confused the experts.
Notably, Starlink has helped Ukraine’s civilians and military stay online during the war, with Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov last week saying Starlink’s services helped restore energy and communications infrastructure in critical areas.
(With inputs from agencies)
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