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Isn’t this a similar argument to how Africa adopted mobile phones significantly faster than other regions? When you don’t have an established wired infrastructu

• TMWNN 3mo ago
  > Isn’t this a similar argument to how Africa adopted mobile phones significantly faster than other regions? You didn't read the article: >Africa’s internet infrastructure is not fit for purpose. During a communications boom in the early 2000s, the continent eschewed fixed-line internet for cheaper mobile broadband; today more than 400m Africans, the bulk of the continent’s users, gain access to the internet this way. >But the technology has not kept pace with the rapid increase in data demand from streaming and AI-powered applications.
• Zigurd 3mo ago
  Africa is mostly on 4G networks, and while 3G isn't a majority of the connections, it's still the next biggest share of infrastructure, far ahead of 5G which is relatively scarce. This is in the context of a population that really depends on mobile wireless for market information if they are farmers, and for payments. Having a mobile phone can take priority over having a flush toilet. Starlink has both opportunities and challenges: 5G is faster and cheaper and more reliable. But mobile wireless revenue is low, so capex is low too. Combine this with a big rural population, and Starlink has a great opportunity, if they can find customers who can afford it.
  • kibwen 3mo ago
    > Combine this with a big rural population, and Starlink has a great opportunity, if they can find customers who can afford it. This is the rub. The primary market here are people whose communities aren't wealthy enough to afford infrastructure that would provide superior service (5G being a step up from satellite, and wired being a step up from that). So Starlink depends on there existing a growing population of people who aren't too poor to afford internet service in the first place, while also relying on the hope that those people don't become too wealthy to afford long-term infrastructure investments.
    • underlipton 3mo ago
      Individually. A village municipal link is probably within reach, though. Village sees increased productivity, raises the wealth of the region, suddenly surrounding villages can afford it. Or, individuals get their own. I don't like giving Musk the benefit of the doubt, but the Chinese/Sears/etc. model of catering to people no one else would try to service can certainly be lucrative.
    • SoftTalker 3mo ago
      One starlink receiver, a router, and some CAT-5 wire run through the village? Seems like an opportunity for local would-be ISP entrepreneurs.
      • cl3misch 3mo ago
        Is this allowed in Starlink's terms of service? Building a commercial service by selling a part of your antenna connection?
        • SoftTalker 3mo ago
          Is anyone in Nigeria going to care?
  • cyberax 3mo ago
    The problem is that 5G needs fiber connectivity and electricity for the towers, and this is not easily achievable in rural areas. You certainly can use microwave backhaul links between towers, but the existing solutions don't provide nearly enough capacity to justify the 5G upgrade. To oversimplify, 4G works in the 1 Gbit world. 5G needs 10-25 Gb.
    • NetMageSCW 3mo ago
      Starlink can also be used for cell tower backhaul.
• dools 3mo ago
  > jump technology generations Satellite internet is not a “generation above” fibre internet
  • willy_k 3mo ago
    Nor did they claim that.
    • dools 3mo ago
      > When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations
      • willy_k 3mo ago
        > As others mentioned, It's a very similar situation for rural American That’s a seperate anecdote about his dad in America. If you’re going to nitpick irrelevant inconsistencies, at least be right.
        • dools 3mo ago
          [flagged]
      • mkl 3mo ago
        Starlink is letting them skip dial-up and ADSL.
      • mbreese 3mo ago
        For what it's worth, I was specifically thinking about DSL and 2000-2010s era DOCSIS technologies. The analogy is really that when mobile phones became popular in Africa, it was possible to skip the step of having wired landlines and cable TV. 3G/4G could be used for anything those would have provided. Starlink does the same thing, but it lets people skip DSL and cable modems. However, I actually think that the main "benefit" you get by not having an extensive wired infrastructure is the lack of an incumbent provider. Centralized incumbents can put pressure on any new technology that puts their existing infrastructure investments at risk.
• TacticalCoder 3mo ago
  > When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations. Same with electricity: there are many rural places in Africa where solar panels + batteries are a revolution. But then there's a reason why a country with more than 3x the number of people in the US was "missing" technologies: Africa is, overall, very poor (GDP per capita in Africa is something like 1/40th of the GDP per capita in the US: 1/40th!). So there's a limit to how far the jump is possible: as someone commented, most of Africa is still on 3G and it's not clear if StarLink shall be able to find customers rich enough to buy their services.
  • HWR_14 3mo ago
    > it's not clear if StarLink shall be able to find customers rich enough to buy their services. Of course they will. If the prices are too high they can just lower them to whatever people can afford. It's not that expensive to cover Africa's customers.
    • yoz-y 3mo ago
      It is not expensive to keep a massive constellation of satellites in a rapidly decaying orbit?
      • Gathering6678 3mo ago
        I'm guessing the person you're replying to meant the incremental cost of serving African customers is low.
      • boredatoms 3mo ago
        Not if your already expecting US/EU customers to pay for the whole thing already
      • mbreese 3mo ago
        They just need to price it more than the cost of the base stations and maintaining downlink sites. Any revenue above variable costs is worth trying to capture. The cost of keeping the constellation of satellites healthy will be borne by customers in richer regions. Look at it this way - the satellites will be traveling over Africa no matter what. If no one in Africa subscribes, then that's a part of their orbit where they aren't earning any revenue. Assuming the rest of the costs are covered by subscribers in other regions, they can price service in Africa as low as they'd like (above hardware costs).
• caseysoftware 3mo ago
  > Especially if there’s no infrastructure needed to install. I suspect this is important for two reasons.. First, because yes, it's magnitudes cheaper if you don't have to build and install the infrastructure. Second, because now you're no longer dependent on your "local provider" which is likely to expect and deal in bribes, share info with local leaders, and generally be a potential risk to everything you want to do.