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From the article: "SpaceX would need permission from countries to operate the service, a process that could be difficult, if not impossible." Yep. To operate i
by geomark 11y ago
From the article: "SpaceX would need permission from countries to operate the service, a process that could be difficult, if not impossible."
Yep. To operate in many countries an ISP has to block access to a lot of content. It differs greatly from country-to-country. Would they really get involved in that? That would mean taking orders from governments all over the world and implementing blocks per those orders. Or would they forget about providing access in those countries? That's a large number of countries.
Added: Forgot to mention one of the biggest obstacles to getting permission in many countries: surveillance. Beaming directly from a user to a satellite that relays to a ground station in another country is going to bypass local surveillance.
Another addition: Wikipedia article on internet censorship and surveillance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveil... Note some of the countries listed under "Pervasive censorship or surveillance": India, South Korea, UK and USA.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- greglindahl 11y agoNote that countries have not succeeded in stopping satellite phone users within their borders... for example, the Taliban in Afghanistan use satellite phones extensively.
- tdaltonc 11y agoAre those phone companies breaking the law when they let the call on to their network?
- greglindahl 11y agoBeats me - but I do bet that these companies don't have any business presence in Afghanistan. And despite the Taliban being involved, which most countries in the world (and the UN) don't like, it hasn't been stopped. Which gives you an idea of how difficult it would be to stop ordinary people from using such a service.
- BillyParadise 11y agoDepends which law, and which country.
- geomark 11y agoRight. That's an alternative, smuggle your satellite internet equipment into a country where it is prohibited. Could be risky during the smuggling. Also very likely easy to detect since it's not exactly a LPI (low probability of intercept) signal.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tdaltonc 11y agoI doubt he would, but just as a though exercise: What would happen if he started answering http requests from space for free? Would that be a crime?
- butwhy 11y agoJust turn the whole satellite cluster into a massive network of tor exit relays.
- lmm 11y agoQuestions about "crime" are a bit academic when it comes to international issues like this - it's less confusing to stick to more concrete questions like "would anyone shut down his satellite?" But to answer the question, I believe a satellite is like a ship in international waters: you're obliged to follow the laws of the country whose flag you carry (and if you don't fly under a national flag you're... not really a criminal so much as an outlaw). There are international agreements about radio transmission but AFAIK none have the force of international law. There is a long and glorious tradition of "pirate" radio stations transmitting from international waters (at least around Britain), which were often perceived as shaky (and technically illegal to listen to), but never prosecuted.
- nostromo 11y agoIt's pretty easy to ignore laws from space. Reference satellite TV in the middle east. Al-Jazeera is banned in many countries, but still has high penetration as users just ignore the laws. Saudi Arabia has an outright ban on satellite television... yet 97% of Saudis have access to satellite television. [1] Iran also bans satellite television, yet more than 70 percent of people Tehran watch banned satellite channels. [2] 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Saudi_Arabia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Saudi_Arabia 2. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/19/iranian-ministermediabansmayseemlaughablein5years.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/19/iranian-min...
- notatoad 11y agoIt's easy if consumer devices can talk directly to your satellites. AFAIK, this still needs a ground based relay to be of any use to the average person - it's a replacement for transoceanic cables or ISP backbones, not for WiFi.
- azernik 11y agoDepends how expensive the receiver equipment is. Seeing as how this is an LEO constellation and not GEO one, and that internet requires bidirectional communication instead of a pure receiver they'll be more complicated and expensive than satellite TV for sure. I just don't know enough about the current hardware to know if it's within reach of the average consumer. (BTW, I find it likely that even if the ground stations ate cheap enough to be privately owned, they'll be more like a cable modem than an 802.11 chip - a relatively expensive stationary piece of equipment that you hook up to an 802.{3/11} network in the home.
- mr_sturd 11y agoI imagine it would be easy for them to ignore the individual requirements of countries. But individual users would have to be able to broadcast in order to communicate here, and would therefore be more at risk of being found by authorities - if they can get their hands on the equipment to do so.