Musk’s Starlink Now Running White House’s WiFi

The New York Times reports:

Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is now accessible across the White House campus. It is the latest installation of the Wi-Fi network across the government since Mr. Musk joined the Trump administration as an unpaid adviser.

It was not immediately clear when the White House complex was fitted with Starlink after President Trump took office for a second term.

Starlink terminals, rectangular panels that receive internet signals beamed from SpaceX satellites in low-Earth orbit, can be placed on physical structures. But instead of being physically placed at the White House, the Starlink system is now said to be routed through a White House data center, with existing fiber cables, miles from the complex.

The Verge reports:

Let’s set aside the obvious conflict of interest and ethics questions at play here — Elon Musk, who owns Starlink parent company SpaceX, has seemed to have his hand on the Executive Branch’s till a lot since Trump took over as President. We can even skip over the security implications pointed out by a cybersecurity expert in the Times piece.

As a practical matter alone, there’s no obvious reason to add another ISP in order to improve Wi-Fi coverage, especially one that the FCC said less than two years ago didn’t “demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service” required for rural broadband funding.

The much simpler solution would be running some new ethernet cable or adding a few extra Wi-Fi access points, like routers.

There’s much more. Gift link below.