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There are other ways to get cheap internet...but Musk et al are actually doing this. No one else is working on some earth-based plan for getting the last few bi
by googlryas 6y ago
There are other ways to get cheap internet...but Musk et al are actually doing this. No one else is working on some earth-based plan for getting the last few billion people on the internet AFAICT. Google and facebook did some things with balloons and aircraft but that was more of a tech demo than an actual attempt to provide internet service.
- emosenkis 6y agoLoon is not a tech demo: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/7/21315961/alphabet-loon-balloons-internet-kenya-telkom-4g-remote-areas https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/7/21315961/alphabet-loon-bal...
- Trombone12 6y agoThe fact that your disinterest for rural infrastructure projects in Ghana mean you don't know about them doesn't mean they don't exist. It just tells the reader you haven't bothered to search for something like "Uganda rural internet project"; unsurprisingly for large infrastructure projects in a poor country, it's being done bit by bit and so there are in fact dozens of projects.
- googlryas 6y agoThe ad hominem is unnecessary and misplaced. I was talking about one large project to give the final billions access, not piecemeal projects helping out a few million people here and there (and disregarding another few million people here and there). I understand that rural infrastructure projects occur. So what's the realistic timeline for, say, 99% coverage? My question is: How long should rural people have to wait, and how much should they pay for internet access, so that astronomers can have 5% of their observations unaffected by satellites?
- abdullahkhalids 6y agoThere are other good reasons for doing piecemeal projects. Paying SpaceX for internet, transfers money out of already economically backwards areas to a far away private company in another country. Some people will argue that these are neocolonist attempts by West into East.
- ben_w 6y agoI can’t find real pricing for Starlink, only guesses. These are the targets to beat: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-of-mobile-data-worldwide/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-of-mobile-data-worldwi...