Starlink It’s best known for providing high-speed satellite internet, but it turns out that SpaceX’s technology could also answer a persistent problem in the Middle East: GPS spoofing and congestion.
“These (Starlink) satellites are much closer than GPS satellites, so their signal is maybe 100 to 1,000 times stronger,” said Bruce Toal, a globe-trotting Starlink subscriber from Texas. “They can handle all kinds of traffic.”
There is an ongoing electronic war in the Middle East disabled GPS reliability for boats navigating the Red Sea forces sailors to contend with dangerous signal interference from surrounding military activities. As the video below shows, spoofing can cancel out legitimate GPS signals, distort a navigation system to make a boat appear off course, and even float on land.
But in recent months, the maritime community has found a solution in Starlink dishes, which can connect to SpaceX’s fleet of more than 8,000 active satellites to receive fairly accurate positioning coordinates. The only problem? The company is set to close its berthing data on May 20, much to the chagrin of boat owners, including Toal, which recently sailed into the Red Sea.
“Of course I have GPS on my boat, but if there’s fraud, the GPS is basically useless,” he says. “If you’re transiting through these areas, it’s a big problem.”
October map showing global navigation satellite system interference reports around the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. (UKMTO)
SpaceX notified users of the change last week. This includes closure A little-known feature of location information through a software interface on Starlink hardware, the gRPC API. Users can manually activate the feature by logging into the Starlink Mobile app and trigger It’s in the “Debug Data” section that allows you to see the GPS coordinates for their food.
The Starlink app had a section in Data Debug mode to see the location of the dish. But SpaceX quietly removed it before the May 20 gRPC API limit. (Credit: Paul Sutherland)
Users who want to know the real-time location of their food tap the gRPC API. The maritime community has also realized that location data can be used as a tamper-proof backup to GPS, says Luis Soltero, a mobile satellite communications expert.
Soltero is the lead developer of PredictWind DatahubProvides marine GPS tracking data including client’s Starlink feed via gRPC API. Last month he also published one to learn About the Starlink-equipped ships traveling in the Red Sea, it confirms that SpaceX’s satellite internet system, especially the Mini antenna, can withstand GPS spoofing and jamming.
(Credit: Luis Soltero)
The same study found Starlink’s location data to be reasonably accurate; The two positioning systems were typically within 18 meters (60 feet) of each other, though traditional GPS seemed more accurate overall, he says.
That’s why Soltero said he was “concerned” that SpaceX had shut down the feature, citing the ongoing threat of GPS spoofing and jamming in the Red Sea. “Commercial ships have been dealing with this for years now,” he told PCMag from a cruise ship where he’s testing Starlink as a GPS-resistant backup. “I’d really like a way to work around that (limitation).”
Soltero points out one reason why Starlink could avoid tampering: it could pass on Data over higher radio bands in the 10-14.5 GHz range, unlike GPS which uses the 1.2 and 1.5 GHz bands. The larger Starlink constellation is also in orbit at an altitude of about 500 km, while the US GPS system stretches 31 operational satellites orbit more than 20,000 km away.
According to Soltero, the Starlink dishes will still receive positioning data from the GPS system, possibly for beam steering. But he also notes that the Starlink app’s Debug Data mode previously included a setting that could get location coordinates “exclusively” from Starlink satellites, not GPS. Soltero found the portable in his work Mini bowl can use this “exclusive mode activation” to counter persistent GPS spoofing, surpassing other Starlink dishes.
Soltero suspects that the Mini dish was released in 2024 with newer hardware components and software that can operate without a GPS signal.
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(Credit: Luis Soltero)
Although the marine industry has not widely adopted Starlink as a GPS backup, it is clear that the technology has significant potential, especially when solar storms can interfere with GPS signals. “Now all the work is done by closing the pipes,” he says.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. But it’s not hard to see how anti-GPS spoofing technology can be a double-edged sword. “I can imagine a Starlink lawyer saying, ‘What? We don’t want to be responsible for people relying on it to navigate their boats,” Toal says. “Because there’s the potential, if something happens, people could sue them. I’m seeing a lawyer who says, ‘We need to cancel this so we don’t have this liability.'”
There were also countries to apply to GPS spoofing and jamming to prevent missile and drone attacks by confusing navigation systems. “A bad actor could use this system to control their car, drone, robot or whatever with 18 meters of precision. If you can do it with boats, why couldn’t you do it with something else?” Soltero asks.
Still, he urges SpaceX to consider the positives and create a way for the marine industry to continue to access ground functionality through the gRPC API, even if it’s never an official feature. “It’s already used for maritime security, it has some importance and I’m very sorry to see it go,” he says.
Toal adds that members of his boat group have been messaging Starlink’s customer support about the impending ban.
About our specialist
Michael Kahn
Chief reporter
Experience
I have been a journalist for more than 15 years. I started as a school and city reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, covering satellite internet services, cybersecurity, computer hardware, and more. I currently live in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing more than 600 stories on availability and feature launches, as well as regulatory battles over expanding satellite constellations, battles with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and efforts to expand into mobile satellite-based service. I scoured FCC filings for the latest news and traveled to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cell service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. in 2024 and 2025 The FTC forced Avast to pay $16.5 million for secretly collecting consumers’ personal information and selling it to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint disclosure investigation with the motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Disadvantages during the pandemic he took me to the camp In front of Best Buy to get the RTX 3000. Now I’m watching how AI-based memory shortages affect the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please leave feedback in the comments and send me tips.
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