5 ms·
> Safaricom and other legacy providers have responded by lowering prices and increasing internet speeds. Super exciting to see competition working.
by cadamsdotcom 2y ago
> Safaricom and other legacy providers have responded by lowering prices and increasing internet speeds.
Super exciting to see competition working.
- jagger27 2y ago[flagged]
- megaman821 2y agoWhat is the "subsidy" here?
- kcb 2y agoUS government buys SpaceX launches instead of Billion $ wrenches from Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop.
- modeless 2y agoProbably referring to government launch contracts, DoD use of Starlink, and Starshield. The latter did not fund the development costs of Starlink AFAIK. And it's hard for me to characterize government launch contracts as "subsidy" when SpaceX is winning those contracts in fair bidding by undercutting all other launch providers on price.
- drooby 2y agoGood.. US govt makes an inferior mouse trap.. Nor is it subsidies.. it's funding from contracts.. SpaceX is on track to make most of its revenue from Starlink anyways
- darth_avocado 2y ago“Competition” subsidized by the US govt. to help a company get global customers so that the product gets more revenue to continue to be viable. The same company that has US investors, US employees, US manufacturing, US customers and pays US tax dollars.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- DarmokJalad1701 2y agoGetting paid for work done (and cheaper than competition as well) is not subsidies.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- swarnie 2y agoBe angry they don't subsidise and/or encourage competition in the domestic market instead of where they do then. Tons of people stuck with 2005 tier connects at x10 the price is just sad.
- modeless 2y agoSpaceX may have revenue from government contracts but they built Starlink of their own accord, not for any government agency. The funding came from private investment (VC) and their own revenue, a significant fraction of which is commercial launches.
- edm0nd 2y agoSpaceX is just an ISP that can launch rockets.
- modeless 2y agoThe competition will get even stronger when SpaceX's Starship launches the next generation of Starlink satellites. More satellites with more capacity per satellite and at lower altitudes could make Starlink a viable competitor even in some urban areas with crappy ISPs. Also I hope Amazon succeeds with their Kuiper constellation. Imagine two competing global satellite ISPs!
- scotty79 2y agoYou mean Starship 2, right? Because Starship top capacity demonstrated was 1 banana. That's why Elon already started hyping how awesome Starship 2 is gonna be. Because it becomes obvious for everybody that Starship will perform below even most modest past predictions.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoStarship 1's LEO capacity has been stated to be 50 tons to LEO. Which is significantly below the goal of 100-150 tons, but absolutely massive compared to anything else. Starship 2 flies next week, so it's moot.
- scotty79 2y ago> Starship 1's LEO capacity has been stated to be 50 tons [...] absolutely massive compared to anything else. I don't really know much about rockets. Do I read here correctly tha Falvon Heavy has 63,800 kg payload to LEO capacity? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy > Starship 2 flies next week, so it's moot. So I guess the OP really meant Starship 2.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoFalcon Heavy can nominally do 64 tons to LEO, but it's volume constrained. It's really hard to fit more than 15-20 tons worth of useful cargo in the fairing. What the extra thrust is useful for is pushing 15 tons to beyond Earth orbit.
- Dig1t 2y agoGoogle Fiber had the same effect in Austin, it's so awesome. There are no data caps on any providers because Google Fiber doesn't have them. Everyone upgraded their service to try to match Google's speeds, so Gigabit is easy to get pretty much anywhere in the city. Google is offering up to 8gb now and ATT is trying to match those speeds. Company reps regularly knock on doors trying to get people to switch to their service offering deep discounts for 1 year+.
- usefulcat 2y agoCan confirm. Where I live in Austin I have a choice of no less than 4 different ISPs, two cable and two fiber. Not even counting wireless options, which probably also exist.
- vyrotek 2y agoI'm watching this happen right now in Mesa, AZ. We just got Google Fiber a few months ago. All of a sudden there are more choices and better prices.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoYes, it's a triumph of capitalism that we have to waste the energy and materials to build out the infrastructure N times before competition kicks in to give us prices that were apparently possible (but not offered) all along!
- lotsofpulp 2y agoIt's a failure of democracy. Voters are not smart enough to understand the utility of ubiquitous fiber to the home as a utility, so they do not vote for leaders who prioritize that.
- extraduder_ire 2y agoIs google fiber still expanding and taking on new customers? I was sure I saw it on that killedbygoogle site ages ago. Are they still reusing ghost fibre and doing micro-trenching, or are they taking a different angle now?
- JKCalhoun 2y agoJust a guess — but I imagine that Starlink passing over a continent and not having any customers below would be a waste of that orbit arc. I mean Starlink could just give away the bandwidth until it actually was running low on it.
- Ringz 2y agoThat’s not how satellite orbit works. Imagine that the earth rotates below the sat orbit. And that the sat orbit doesn’t go parallel to Latitude or Longitude.
- etskinner 2y agoThat doesn't negate their point. Starlink satellites still pass over Africa regularly and completely. The only caveat I'll say is that starlink generally requires ground stations to provide connection at scale. So it's not 0 marginal cost for them to provide it for free. But the general thought is right: the marginal cost is small. Launching satellites is the expensive part, and once you have them up there, you might as well serve Africa