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Russian citizens and businesses may be fined by the state for using SpaceX’s Starlink Internet.
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Analyst John Byrne told Insider it is easier for Russia to fine citizens instead of Starlink.
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“Satellite may be reversing the tables because the government has no control over space,” Byrne said.
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According to local reports, the Russian government can fine individuals or companies for using Starlink Internet, developed by the US company SpaceX.
The new law, proposed by Russia’s legislative body, the State Duma, aims to prevent citizens from accessing the Internet through one of Elon Musk’s hundreds of satellites.
Regular users can be billed between 10,000 and 30,000 rubles ($ 135- $ 405), while legal entities may be charged up to a million rubles ($ 6,750 to $ 13,500) if they use the Western satellite service, according to Popular Mechanics.
In response to local reports, Musk tweeted: “We’re just trying to get people to Mars. Help is greatly appreciated.”
After launching a record-breaking 143 satellites into orbit on Sunday, SpaceX is slowly approaching its goal of enveloping the Earth with up to 42,000 Starlink satellites to provide super-fast Internet.
So far, the space company has launched 944 working satellites into space using its reusable Falcon 9 rockets.
This airspace takeover is a threat to authoritarian regimes such as Russia. John Byrne, a service director specializing in telecom technology at GlobalData, told Insider that it is difficult for Russia to penalize the ISP, but “it is easier to fine your own citizens, or at least threaten them with an ISP. fine. “
Byrne said a government is able to control the rights to operate a mobile internet service, adding that if China told its network operators to ban certain sites over this internet medium, it would be easy.
“Satellite may be reversing the roles because the government has no control over space; as a result, the government has a much harder time regulating content via satellite,” he said.
Having said this, governments have the right to regulate vertical space, such as when aircraft travel in their designated airspace.
Starlink uses LEO (low-earth orbit) satellites, which operate at a much lower altitude than traditional satellites, but much higher than mobile telephony. With that in mind, the question is whether they are considered within the realm of government control, Byrne said.
Read more: The aerospace industry will grow by more than $ 1 trillion in the next decade, Bank of America says. Here are the 14 stocks best positioned to take advantage of the boom.
Russia has plans to develop its own satellite Internet constellation called Sfera, which could be launched in 2024, IntelliNews reported in November. The project, which is expected to cost 1.5 trillion rubles (about $ 20 billion), would likely enable the country to continue to track domestic internet traffic, Byrne said.
According to Byrne, if Russian citizens use Musk’s satellite constellation, the country could be blocked from tracking their internet traffic, just like with cellular services. He added that this could eventually increase tensions between the US and Russia.
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