Musk, the GAFAMs, and Ukraine
If the GAFAM won't do a thing about Ukraine, Musk just sent a truck full of Starlink terminals. Is it going to change the face of this war? Obviously not, but it's something.
Elon Musk’s promised Starlink terminals have reached Ukraine
Musk promised to send the dishes on February 26th.
It's also a reminder that space is getting unbundled and privatized by two American tech companies (forgive me for not taking Virgin Galactic very seriously at this point). Getting connected or disconnected from the global network will more and more be in the hand of oligopolies that Europe don't control.
In the 2000s, software ate the world. In the 2020s, hardware is eating software, and global infrastructure is the new frontier.