AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk's Starlink app, which enables users to access the SpaceX's satellite internet service, became the most downloaded app in Ukraine on Monday, according to multiple reports. The app has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times, according to the firm that provides App Store and Google Play data to The Wall Street Journal.
Global downloads of the app have more than tripled in the last two weeks. Starlink was downloaded 21,000 times across the world on Sunday, the most global installs in a single day. Most of those downloads were in Ukraine.
For the last three weeks, Ukraine has seen multiple internet outages since the Russian invasion. Last week, one of the main internet service providers was hacked resulting in resetting service devices back to factory settings.
It's unclear if Russia was directly behind the attack, but the British Ministry of Defense warned Ukraine last week that Russia is probably targeting their communication infrastructure.
Starlink became available in Ukraine after the country's minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, asked Musk to provide Ukraine with the terminals that enable the internet service.
"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine," Musk said on Twitter last month. "More terminals en route."
Starlink is a space-based system that brings internet access to underserved areas of the world, using close to 2,000 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth more than 340 miles up to supply the service. The system was also used in Tonga after a huge volcanic eruption and tsunami cut off main internet connection for weeks.
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