BT CEO Allison Kirkby has said that the company won't launch its partnership with Elon Musk's Starlink until "the noise has died down” around Starlink's recent disruption in Ukraine.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Kirkby said that BT was “ready to launch” the service but was “cautious on how Starlink might be viewed at the moment, considering what happened in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago."
Her comments relate to the recent slowdown of SpaceX subsidiary Starlink's service which hindered Ukraine’s military during its war with Russia.
Starlink has been a key part of Ukraine's communications infrastructure since the country's war with Russia began in 2022. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, thousands of Starlink terminals were given to Ukraine.
However, last month SpaceX founder Musk was accused of reducing Starlink's available satellite communications capacity in Ukraine.
At the time, Musk denied the claims, posting on X that: "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," he posted. President Donald Trump and the US government denied ordering the restrictions.
"We will only launch it proactively when we feel the noise has died down a little bit on Elon Musk and Starlink as a result of the Ukraine thing,” Kirkby told the FT.
She added the company plans to launch its Starlink tie-up in the coming months. The telecoms giant signed its satellite connectivity partnership with Starlink in November of last year.