Elon Musk's Starlink Is Giving Venezuelan Citizens Free Internet (For Now)

The biggest global news of the first week of 2026 was the U.S. military's operations in Venezuela that culminated with the capture and arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. The raid on Maduro's home was coordinated with an attack by over 100 bombers that left much of the capital city of Caracas and surrounding area reeling. With much of Venezuela's communications infrastructure damaged, Starlink is stepping in with some temporary assistance. An announcement on the Starlink website states that "Starlink is providing free broadband service to the people of Venezuela through February 3" and provides limited details.

Existing customers — even those who paused their service or stopped paying for it — will be given proactive service credits; the message notified users to check the account section of their Starlink app. People who already own the Starlink hardware with service elsewhere were advised to "select a Roam plan to use your Starlink in Venezuela." The cost of a Starlink kit varies by region, and Starlink admits that it doesn't yet have "a timeline for local purchase availability."

This is not the first time Starlink has provided its satellite internet service to a nation under siege. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Starlink CEO Elon Musk responded to a call for help from the Ukrainian government. Starlink had hardware delivered halfway across the world within 48 hours, but by October, the cost had reached $80 million, and Musk said the U.S. government should step in and pay for it. It's unclear how the expense of providing service in Venezuela will compare, although the two nations are similar in a couple of key demographics. 

Venezuela has about 27 million people to Ukraine's almost 40 million, and both nations boast a capital city of about 3 million (Caracas and Kyiv). Starlink service has been important to Ukraine's military forces, who use it for everything from drone control and battlefield coordination to communicating with family at home. SpaceX won a Department of Defense contract in 2023 to continue funding its efforts in Ukraine, and the Polish government is on record as having contributed money as well. The hard deadline of February 3 in Venezuela precludes an ongoing commitment that could require similar intervention down the road while still providing immediate, much-needed assistance to affected citizens.