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I wonder if that guy has worked out the energy required to build the ground infrastructure to bring communications to all of Earth.
by superkuh 3y ago
I wonder if that guy has worked out the energy required to build the ground infrastructure to bring communications to all of Earth.
- ohgodplsno 3y agoAh yes, because Musk is a philanthropist and is doing this for earth as a whole. That's why for poorer, thrid world countries, he'll... keep charging the usual rate, making Starlink a non-starter in those countries ? Starlink is a rich idiot's toy, not a solution to bring communications to everyone.
- m3kw9 3y agoIt’s expensive because of capacity limits and this is why it is stated for use in remote areas.
- cma 3y agoThey do price discriminate to a cheaper price for poorer countries (in Ukraine it went the opposite despite being a poor country, where they tried to jack the price up by thousands of percent, but we don't know the terms of the recent pentagon deal to say what price it finally went through at).
- cma 3y agoAs I understand it, the cost of fiber repair has gone down and we should be able to wire everywhere that has grid electricity with high speed fiber very economically, but it doesn't happen for rent seeking and bureaucratic reasons. That would still leave the oceans and some more remote areas that don't have power.
- mschuster91 3y agoA lot of places have no grid electricity worth calling that. And of those that do, there is no financially feasible way to wire them up with fiber.
- cma 3y agoA big portion of the population of those can be covered by cell towers and relays cheaper than launching cell towers into space that only last a few years.
- kitsunesoba 3y agoIn addition to rent seeking and bureaucracy, attempts to expand ground infrastructure are plagued by obstructionism by the giant telecom incumbents, not only in the form of legalized monopolies for some areas, but also by such underhanded methods as weaponization of environmental regulations with fake environment preservation groups and stoking NIMBYism in residents. It's nearly impossible to get anything done in some parts of the US especially.
- moltar 3y agoAdd most of Canada to the list too.
- weinzierl 3y agoAlso does't work when your infrastructure is destroyed faster than it can be repaired, like we can see in Ukraine currently.
- detourdog 3y agoIn my small New Englandntown it would cost about $2,500 per household. We have about 2,000 homes.
- cma 3y agoStarlink isn't a good fit for towns that big, as it would overflow the rough limit of 300 dishes per cell (maybe changed with some of the recent fights with Dish?).
- detourdog 3y agoI don't want starlink. I'm old fashion I want fiber. I was just throwing out pricing for rural broadband installs in New England. I realize now my initial comment neglected that important detail.
- tomohawk 3y agoThat's a good point. One way to look at Starlink is as a proxy to the cost of government bureaucracy and oligopolies and monopolies that restrain trade. It's actually cheaper and more effective to build Starlink than it is to arbitrate all of that terrestrial mess.