About 20 years ago there was this optimism that Internet is this new unstoppable thing that will liberate the world to have free communication and knowledge sharing. Unfortunate that turned out to be such a false idea. Probably the infrastructure of it all simply wouldn't allow it...maybe that's what needs to change.
Peer to peer internet is what is missing I suppose.
Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
171–180 of 295 posts
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#172Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
* International treaties and national laws prohibit sending radio signals into the country if the countries government doesn't give you permission. Space ISPs are very unlikely to do so without permission except at the behest of their home government.
Serious question: how would a satellite ISP know where a user is located? Moreover, how can a satellite ISP ensure that its signals are not entering a particular country, especially a geographically small country?
Instead, what these satellites are doing is using something called a phased array antenna, that let's them narrowly select what area they are broadcasting to and receiving from at any point in time with some fancy electronics controlling an array of many little antennas that constructively/destructively interfere. As a result, they have to know where the base stations are reasonably precisely.
I'm not actually sure how they discover where base stations are, my guess would be GPS on the base stations and omni-directional signalling to find them, in which case they know to within meters where a base station is. If that guess is wrong, you might be able to be a small amount over a border and have SpaceX not know it, but not substantially.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#174This is why I’m excited about Starlink.
Starlink is not the solution. A private entity then decides who gets what and the US government will also meddle in what is allowed. Do you think Starlink would be allowed to route TikTok traffic if it got banned?
There's no reason to ban TikTok or other apps if people in China have unrestricted access to US companies.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes; can't they just declare that Starlink's particular transmission bands are reserved for Belarussian military use, and then fine them for broadcasting on military bands?
How would a state extract fines out of an external entity who does not operate in that state? International court? Those only deal with human rights, resources and border disputes.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#176I have coworkers in Belarus who have been cut off from our (US based) company since the weekend. I've been able to hear from one of them intermittently, but it's a scary thing, I can't imagine what they're going through.
FYI - we have been able to get regular SMS and voice calls through (using Google Fi as our carrier). It was great to go from "absolute zero communication" to "we know you're currently OK"
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#177Context: Russian Mercs in Belarus: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-dozen...
If we can have different point of views that would be helpful for a better judgement: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/08/the-russian-coup-plot-...
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#178Those fascists are really getting more and more brutal against people. And population will soon start treating them as they treated fascists during WW2.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#179wondering what / if any impact "the space internet" (or like networks) will have on national government's ability to disrupt comms. or if it just shifts the goalposts to a different network operator
On the flip side, I don't think they can block communications forever, so is that tactic even going to work ?
People are still going to be pissed in one month.
Re: Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election
#180I've noticed this in other countries where there are accusations of rigging the results that the ratios always super high, in this case 80%. If you're going to fake an election result that had some legitimate measurable opposition, why make it so extremely high? Does that mean nearly every vote counting place is rigged and it's so bad they don't even bother hiding it? Just like when Crimea voted to join Russia it was…
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