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LONDON. – BT is holding off the launch of its Starlink satellite broadband service until “the noise has died down” around Elon Musk and Ukraine, chief executive Allison Kirkby said in an interview. She still expects the service to launch “in the coming months.”
Kirkby said the service was “ready to launch,” but BT was “cautious on how Starlink might be viewed at the moment considering what happened in Ukraine.”
“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,” she said.
Her comments describe a hold on the launch, not the cancellation of the partnership. The timing remains expressed in months rather than a firm launch date.
BT’s November 2025 partnership announcement said BT and EE would offer Starlink connectivity to consumer broadband customers in rural and remote parts of the UK where conventional fixed-line infrastructure was difficult or uneconomic to build. It expected the service to be available in the latter half of 2026.
For those households, the agreement was intended to add a satellite option alongside BT’s fibre and mobile networks. Kirkby’s latest comments leave the service planned, with the public launch still to come.
JBizNews Desk | London
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