SpaceX is nearing 100 active Starlink user terminals in Iran, company CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Monday.
Starlink is a high-speed internet service powered by a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. A Starlink terminal on the ground connects to and communicates with orbiting satellites to provide (impressively fast) internet access.
Approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022
The news comes months after SpaceX activated Starlink service in Iran amid widespread protests that broke out over the country’s oppressive laws and the suspicious September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the government’s “morality police.”
Iran’s government resorted to cutting off internet access in Tehran and other popular centers to suppress the unrest. Several Starlink connections had already gone online in Iran by October, with Starlink kits being smuggled into the country. The service is now coming up on 100 terminals on the ground as protests rage on.
Last week, SpaceX celebrated a new milestone as Starlink hit a whopping one million active subscribers across the globe. The week before, the Starlink constellation crossed 3,000 satellites in operational positions.
SpaceX continues to launch Starlink in more regions, recently bringing coverage to the islands of Mayotte, Réunion, and the Solomon Islands, as well as the coastal country of French Guiana in South America.
