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"People in rural Africa should not have internet because I want an unobstructed view of the stars" ...is not a good argument. The only good place for a telesco
by 101404 7y ago
"People in rural Africa should not have internet because I want an unobstructed view of the stars" ...is not a good argument.
The only good place for a telescope is the far side of the moon.
- semi-extrinsic 7y agoThe people in rural Africa argument is BS. Here is a 2016 report (see link in this CNN story) https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/19/africa/africa-afrobarometer-infrastructure-report/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/19/africa/africa-afrobaromet... that found: "In Africa, less than one in three people have a proper drainage system, half of the population live in areas without paved roads, and only 63% have access to piped water. Yet, 93% of Africans have cell phone service." Over the course of the next five years, 4G and 5G coverage in Africa will likely cover 95% of the population. The really strange thing about Starlink is that there really seems to be no business case. It seems almost like it's based on taking the half-assed broadband coverage in the US, and extrapolating to the rest of the world by assuming it must be worse.
- londons_explore 7y agoMusk is from South Africa. I would expect him to have a better grasp of the distribution of needs of the worlds population than many american innovators.
- SiempreViernes 7y agoHe got out and never looked back is my impression, for instance it's certainly not where he first spends his charity money [1]. At most he's given some money to his former high school, but there are rumours that was done in exchange to them not contacting him any more [2]. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/23/how-elon-musks-secretive-foundation-benefits-his-own-family https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/23/how-elon-... [2]: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/lifestyle/why-did-elon-musk-leave-south-africa/ https://www.thesouthafrican.com/lifestyle/why-did-elon-musk-...
- 101404 7y ago70+ years of of "aid" have destroyed Africa. Good thing not to participate in that scam.
- qayxc 7y agoBS! StarLink's goal is not to go bankrupt. Full stop. Musk said so himself. Delivering Internet to the 3rd world or even emerging countries is not part of the agenda. Stop fooling yourself.
- 101404 7y agoWeird, because of was since the early days of Starlink. "Not to go bankrupt" was only the response to a question about taking Starlink public. Please don't spread lies by taking quotes out of context.
- qayxc 7y agoHow the heck can "the focus is not to go bankrupt" be taken out of context? Please elaborate! It's neither a lie nor out of context, especially given the fact that every single other satellite internet [edit]startup[/edit] went bankrupt. So please, enlighten me as to how this is a lie or taken out of context.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- eternalny1 7y agoShips? Airlines?
- valuearb 7y agoA substantial portion of worlds population lives in rural areas with very poor internet connectively. Starlink isn't for urban areas, whether in the US or Africa. It's for ships, planes, islands, mountainous rural terrain, etc.
- verytrivial 7y agoI refuse to tilt at straw telescopes, to mangle an idiom.