Ham Serunjogi, the co-founder and CEO at Chipper Cash, is so impressed with SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellite internet service that he will purchase user terminals to connect communities in West Africa to Starlink Internet. "Just installed Starlink and quite impressed with initial speeds & ease of setup. Most excited about its potential to bring internet access to remote & rural areas that lack infrastructure. Elon Musk I’d be glad to commit $$ [money] to donate Starlink to schools & hospitals in Uganda," said Serunjogi via Twitter. SpaceX founder Elon Musk agreed with Serunjogi and asked the public: "Are there others that want to donate Starlinks to places in need?" wrote Musk in response to the post. Hundreds of Twitter users said they would donate to help underprivileged communities globally have access to the internet. –"Ok, we will add a donate option to Starlink," said Musk.
Ok, we will add a donate option to Starlink
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2022
Last week, avid SpaceX supporters suggested that it would be a good idea for the company to create a monthly donation subscription service to help provide Starlink internet to people in need during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war after Musk mentioned that the company is providing free service to thousands of people living in Ukraine and is losing a significant amount of money. Musk says almost all broadband satellite companies have gone bankrupt and SpaceX's Starlink division is trying not to go bankrupt due to how expensive is to build and maintain the infrastructure. "To be precise, 25,300 [user] terminals were sent to Ukraine, but, at present, only 10,630 are paying for service," he shared on October 17. Ukrainians have been using the free-of-charge service for over six months now. "In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways. We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder. Burn is approaching ~$20M/month [million per month]," said Musk. It is likely that SpaceX will release a 'Donate' feature on its official Starlink.com website to allow people to support connecting underprivileged communities around the world to the internet. Read more in TESMANIAN's previous story: SpaceX Starlink Bills for Ukraine Could Be Covered by Donations, Elon Musk's Supporters Offer
In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2022
We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder.
Burn is approaching ~$20M/month.
SpaceX Starlink Bills for Ukraine Could Be Covered by Donations, Elon Musk's Supporters Offerhttps://t.co/wPVeV3wPwU
— Tesmanian.com (@Tesmanian_com) October 16, 2022
Featured Image Source: SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
