Starlink suffers global outage

A rare and widespread outage of Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, knocked tens of thousands of users offline on Thursday, including users across Haiti where the service has become increasingly vital.

The 2.5-hour disruption began around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) and stemmed from internal software failures, according to Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink Engineering. “The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network,” Nicolls posted on X, adding that a solution had been implemented and apologizing for the service interruption.

Elon Musk also acknowledged the problem on X, writing: “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Outage tracker Downdetector received more than 61,000 user reports from the U.S. and Europe. This is one of the longest outages ever for Starlink since becoming a major internet provider.

The outage’s cause remains under review, though experts speculated it may have been tied to a flawed software update or possibly a cyberattack. Gregory Falco, director of the space and cybersecurity lab at Cornell University, told Reuters the incident resembled last year’s global Microsoft disruption caused by a faulty update to CrowdStrike’s security software.

Starlink currently serves over 6 million users across 140 countries, with more than 8,000 low-Earth orbit satellites launched since 2020. It has become a critical connectivity option for militaries, transportation sectors, and communities lacking traditional broadband.

Starlink became available in Haiti in March 2023 and has since expanded rapidly across the island, offering internet access to rural and remote communities long underserved by local providers. 

In 2022, less than half of Haitians had access to reliable home internet. Starlink’s arrival has allowed more Haitians to access remote education, digital jobs, and disaster communications.

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