4 ms·

Why would this type of feature invoke that type of response?

• chrisseaton 5y ago
  Governments have no control over satellite signals.
  • anchpop 5y ago
    They can shoot down the satellites if they break the law though. That's why bypassing China's firewall isn't as easy as sneaking in a Starlink base station
    • chrisseaton 5y ago
      > They can shoot down the satellites if they break the law though. I don't think they can tractably do that. If India started shooting down US satellites they'd be in for a whole world of problems.
  • kube-system 5y ago
    No, but they do have control over people and property.
    • chrisseaton 5y ago
      They have absolutely no way to detect what those people are doing with that property when it comes to satellites though - they can't detect that you're doing it, and they don't have much practical way to block it either.
      • kube-system 5y ago
        All competent governments on earth already regulate wireless communications, including satellite communications. Most have found it fairly effective to regulate trade and manufacture of such devices. At a minimum, it is effective enough that it is a response that would be expected to be elicited if a government found a device undesirable.
        • chrisseaton 5y ago
          I don't know what your experience is in this area, but how do you believe they regulate access to a satellite from another nation flying overhead if your people have the device to access it? You can just about jam GPS signals locally (within a few km if you pour the resources into it.) Nations are not able in practice to generally jam satellite signals. We know that nations are not able to do this in practice... because it's how people from those locations are calling out to us.
          • kube-system 5y ago
            > how do you believe they regulate access to a satellite from another nation flying overhead if your people have the device to access it? You don’t. You prevent people from getting access to the device in the first place. There are no countries where people already have iPhone 13s. A country that doesn’t want them, could certainly ban their import. There ain’t too many people watching HBO on their satellite TVs in North Korea.
            • chrisseaton 5y ago
              > You don’t. Exactly. > There are no countries where people already have iPhone 13s. They have Iridium, Garmin, etc. Any number of satellite devices. > A country that doesn’t want them, could certainly ban their import. I think you're super-naive if you think import bans on these devices work in practice, sorry. They're easily concealable.
              • kube-system 5y ago
                The question originally posed above, that you responded to, was about a government response to the iPhone 13 specifically.
      • detaro 5y ago
        The point is that they restrict you obtaining said property. Of course not 100%, but how popular would an iPhone that you need to smuggle into the country and that gets you arrested (or at least the device destroyed and you fined) if found by police be?
• Gaelan 5y ago
  Internet access that isn't subject to whatever domestic firewalling is in place, presumably.
  • bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    If you come to China with a foreign SIM card and use data roaming, there are no firewall restrictions there. At least that's what I know from a few years ago. One trick travellers had was to get a SIM card from Hong Kong (again, before the crackdowns) because the roaming prices inside China were good (I can't remember if it was non-existant) but the Internet was not censored...
• treeman79 5y ago
  Many governments have strict censorship. This bypasses all government controls.
  • gambiting 5y ago
    Well, not quite - even satellite internet has base stations somewhere and your internet follows the rules of that country.
    • DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
      Satellites can bounce signals between each other while in orbit to work-around those pesky geopolitical borders. ...this was also part of the plot of Independence Day.
• PeterisP 5y ago
  No specific response is needed as a bunch of countries already have pre-existing rules that require prohibit importing satellite communications devices without special permits even (or perhaps especially for) personal use - it just doesn't get much attention as e.g. Iridium phones are not that common. But if these countries do nothing and change nothing, this feature means that it would be prohibited to bring iPhone 13s in the country without special permits.
  • tomjen3 5y ago
    I am sure that Apple will fix this, probably by disabling this feature in India. That is one of the nice things about Apple, when you run into issues like this, things happen, precisely because they are so common.
    • kylehotchkiss 5y ago
      It’s worse than that - bringing one in just as a tourist could bring heavy consequences and there’s no clear communication about that rule as it is.