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That's still far too low. It should be in the high 90th percentile, where everyone who wants or needs to use it can. When three quarters of the population of a
by onion2k 5y ago
That's still far too low. It should be in the high 90th percentile, where everyone who wants or needs to use it can. When three quarters of the population of a country have no access even if they want it its a sign that more needs to happen.
- s5300 5y ago10 years or less (likely less) starlink will have that covered IMO. Feel free to consider this a bet to come back to.
- PawBer 5y agoI think it's more of a poverty problem than technology problem.
- onion2k 5y agoIt's a bit of both. Delivering an internet connection to a remote mountain or desert location is a hard problem. It's compounded by other tech problems like an unreliable electricity supply. If the people there have very few resources it's even harder.
- onion2k 5y agoWill Starlink ever be affordable for people living in least developed counties?
- rsj_hn 5y agoI guess that depends on how much they develop and how ubiquitous the tech is. Cell phones, for example, are widely used in developing nations. Tech in general has been the best at reducing costs over time compared to things like food and energy which haven't really fallen in price.
- arpa 5y agoI consider myself very well off. My internet is 4G and gets me about 15-20Mbps on a good day. I was considering starlink, but a set up fee of 600€ is a bit too much. Starlink is NOT feasible in developing countries. It's Elons' cash cow now.
- s5300 5y agoCan’t one dish essentially serve an entire region through wiring to it? €600 for an entire village/favela/whatever else to have some form of internet sounds fairly reasonable in the early 21st century. And prices will surely go down over the next few years.
- ben_w 5y agoI was about to suggest the one-per-village idea too. It isn’t designed for lots of ground stations to be close to each other anyway. That said, given the base station is currently sold below cost, it may take quite a while to get cheap.
- arpa 5y agoOnly if you're willing to pick up the responsibility for hosting/downloading CP for example...
- paxys 5y agoMost of the world relies on mobile devices and mobile networks for their connectivity needs. Starlink isn't going to really move the needle in the developing world.
- ben_w 5y agoHigh 90th percentile isn’t possible given the range of human ability. Even in OECD countries, 26% of people aged 16-65 failed a test designed to gauge computer skills because they couldn’t use a computer at all: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/
- onion2k 5y agoEducating people to be able to use the internet is part of getting internet access for everyone. It's not just access to the tech; it's the entire infrastructure and knowledge to use it.
- bpicolo 5y agoI would bet there's a very large population of people that use a smart phone and have never touched a computer.
- ben_w 5y ago"""“Below Level 1” = 14% of Adult Population Being too polite to use a term like “level zero,” the OECD researchers refer to the lowest skill level as “below level 1.” … An example of task at this level is “Delete this email message” in an email app.""" That 26% I described? They were below even the “Below Level 1” level.