SpaceX headquarters is shown in Hawthorne, California, U.S. June 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
Daniel Cole | Reuters<\/p>\n
Elon Musk’s Starlink is offering free broadband internet service to users in Venezuela through Feb. 3, following U.S. airstrikes and the capture of ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The satellite internet provider said in a release on Sunday<\/a> that service credits were being added proactively to both active and inactive accounts as it monitored evolving conditions and regulatory requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n “While we do [not yet have] a timeline for local purchase availability, if and when there are updates they will be communicated directly through official Starlink channels,” it added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starlink, which is a subsidiary of aerospace company SpaceX, provides internet access through low-earth-orbit satellites and requires users to purchase separate equipment to connect to the service.<\/p>\n Starlink’s availability map on its website lists Venezuela as “coming soon,” suggesting the company had not formally launched service there, despite indicating that some users were already active.<\/p>\n A ramp-up of free internet services in the country could help provide connectivity amid the fallout of recent U.S. airstrikes and a ground raid to capture and extradite Maduro for trial on allegations including narco-terrorism and election rigging.\u00a0<\/p>\n Washington’s operations on Jan. 3 mostly targeted areas in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, with the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira also attacked<\/a>, according to a government statement.<\/p>\n Following the airstrikes, reports <\/a>indicated that areas of Caracas had lost power and internet connectivity<\/a>.\u00a0Some local outlets also reported<\/a> outages in Miranda over the weekend. <\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that the U.S. would oversee Venezuela’s transition, though details remain unclear amid concerns over a power vacuum.<\/p>\n The president also announced Saturday that\u00a0Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in<\/a> after Maduro’s arrest, but has threatened a second strike<\/a> on Venezuela if the leadership didn’t “behave.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council plans to hold a meeting on Jan. 6 to discuss the legality of U.S. action, as countries, including U.S. allies such as Brazil<\/a> and Spain<\/a>, have condemned the military actions. <\/p>\n Venezuela is far from the first conflict zone in which Starlink has been deployed. In a similar case in Ukraine, the satellite service was rolled out to replace internet and communication networks damaged by Russia’s invasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Starlink had initially provided internet services in Ukraine largely at its own expense, its operations have been funded under a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense since June 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starlink did not disclose how many users it has in Venezuela or the cost of providing the service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX headquarters is shown in Hawthorne, California, U.S. June 5, 2025. Daniel Cole | Reuters Elon Musk’s Starlink…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[11732,222200,81,712,3499,27907,78592,37313,50,158,67,132,68,32322,14513],"class_list":{"0":"post-493461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-breaking-news-technology","10":"tag-broadband-internet","11":"tag-business-news","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-internet-access","14":"tag-internet-service-providers","15":"tag-internet-services","16":"tag-internet-technology","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-venezuela","23":"tag-venezuela-government"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115841032695572347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}