Starlink will stop providing a location-information feature it has offered to some users from May 20, local time.

IT outlet Ars Technica reported on May 11 that the feature has been used as a de facto auxiliary navigation tool that can be used even in GPS-jamming environments.

Starlink’s main business is satellite internet. But SpaceX publicly acknowledged in a letter sent to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in May last year that Starlink could provide positioning, navigation and timing synchronisation (PNT) services. In practice, some users have used the location information of the dish antenna through the debug data menu in the Starlink mobile app.

The feature is known to have been able to provide the dish’s precise latitude, longitude and altitude information through a local network without separate authentication. There was previously also an option to use Starlink location information alone. Todd Humphreys (토드 험프리스), a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, described it as a “cheat key that only some users knew about” that could be used even in GPS-interference environments.

It was particularly useful for users who installed the latest Starlink terminals in vehicles or ships. A yacht that sailed in the Red Sea was reported to have continued navigating using only Starlink location information even amid GPS jamming and spoofing by using a 2024 Starlink Mini.

Starlink sent users an email on April 21 notifying them that it would stop providing the dish location data from May 20, 2026. SpaceX did not separately explain the reason for ending the feature.

The move comes as GPS jamming, which blocks reception signals, and spoofing, which deceives location information with false signals, spread from Europe to Asia. Disruptions to air and maritime operations are also increasing interest in GPS-alternative navigation. Existing satellite navigation systems transmit weak signals from Earth’s altitude, making them vulnerable to strong radio interference, while low-Earth orbit communications satellite-based systems are assessed to be more resistant to jamming by using relatively higher power and wider bandwidth.

There is also a difference in spoofing response. Starlink user terminals use phased-array antennas that focus signals toward a specific satellite, and can use round-trip time measurement between satellites and terminals, encrypted signals and user authentication. By contrast, general GPS receivers passively receive unencrypted signals from multiple satellites to calculate location, making them vulnerable to false signals.

Accuracy remains limited compared with dedicated satellite navigation systems. Humphreys’ research team said that if Starlink provides real-time clock and orbit correction information, it would be possible to implement a position-and-time solution at about the 10-metre level. But satellite clock precision is lower than that of dedicated navigation satellites equipped with atomic clocks, and there is also a structural limitation in which user terminals communicate with only one satellite at a time.

Even if Starlink ends the feature, research into alternative navigation using low-Earth orbit satellite signals continues. Zak Kassas (잭 카사스) and his research team succeeded in estimating a location within 8 metres using signals from only 6 Starlink satellites in 2021, and in 2025 achieved accuracy at the 2-metre level within 20 seconds using signals from an average of 3 satellites. The technology is being applied not only to Starlink but also to various low-Earth orbit signals including Orbcomm, Iridium, OneWeb and satellites of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.