(Reuters) – SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday that the company will request a waiver of sanctions against Iran for providing Starlink satellite broadband service in the country.
Musk’s (NYSE) Twitter statement came at a time when there was widespread protests in Iran over the death of a woman in police custody. Some people on Twitter have asked Musk to provide satellite internet stations.
Access to social media and some content is severely restricted in Iran and internet monitoring group NetBlocks reported a “near-total” outage in the Kurdish region’s capital on Monday, linking it to the protests. (https://
Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology could not be reached for comment. The State Department, Iran’s mission to the United Nations and the US Bureau of Industry and Security did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Musk did not specify which country Starlink would seek waivers from, but Iran faces wide-ranging sanctions.
Aiming for Starlink’s rapid expansion, SpaceX is racing against competing satellite communications companies including OneWeb and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 that have yet to launch Project Kuiper.
