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US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

reuters.com

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Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#611

Post by grecy »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #33
trident5000 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can arrive at your own conclusion. I think its pretty obvious whats happening here (the commissioners voted along party lines right down the middle). And theres no other company thats even close to Starlink now or in the medium term future. So I dont know who would practically fill this spot. For below comment: This is for "rural" connection. You're not laying wire for that regardless of what Comcast wants you to…

I'd rather the federal government just roll out fiber and not put Starlink and Elon in a position of power. That fiber will always be in the ground and available. Elon has shown himself to be unworthy of any position where trust and good judgement is required. If it costs more, that is a premium worth paying. Fool me once. https://www.internetforall.gov/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...…

> just roll out fiber

I worked provisioning internet for the Telco that serves basically all of Northern Canada. 33% of Canada's landmass and only 0.3% of its population.

We're not talking about cities or even towns here, we're talking about very rural customers. Have you been to rural Alaska, or Montana or Wyoming?

I have, and you drive for hours with no cell service, let alone wires in the ground.

You are seriously underestimating the expense to run fibre to each of these customers. Some of our communities it was well over $1mil per customer.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#612

Post by spiderice »

boldslogan wrote: post #539
notyourwork wrote: post #450

Maybe a dumb take but I’d really like for the population to earn an ownership stake in the company for providing subsidies. I don’t know much about subsidies but it seems like it would be in the best interest of the population to be able to have an ownership stake in the companies that are providing a head start through monetary or policy subsidizing. Can someone tell me if there is a way for the US to recoup subsidy…

I think it is taxes, what you’re looking for. Not to be snarky

At least back up your snark with an explanation of how that answers GP’s question.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#613

Post by ChatGTP »

notyourwork wrote: post #450

Maybe a dumb take but I’d really like for the population to earn an ownership stake in the company for providing subsidies. I don’t know much about subsidies but it seems like it would be in the best interest of the population to be able to have an ownership stake in the companies that are providing a head start through monetary or policy subsidizing. Can someone tell me if there is a way for the US to recoup subsidy…

I'm surprised you haven't been called a "communist" yet.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#614

Post by mardifoufs »

nozzlegear wrote: post #573
trothamel wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how much of the decision is blacked out, it's hard to give it any credibility, either.

Presumably the people who are relevant to the decision making are able to read the full reasoning and give it its due credibility.

Like the dissenting opinion did?

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#615

Post by pmorici »

colechristensen wrote: post #435
pmorici wrote: post #63

Starlink service is so obviously phenomenal to anyone who's used it, this isn't going to change that or effect SpaceX's success one bit. The FCC's actions here are just embarrassing their agency by exposing their petty ineptitude and harming whomever this program was supposed to help.

Is it phenomenal? Not quite. In my experience speeds vary and brief dropouts are frequent. It's great to be able to access high speed internet from anywhere, but it has its limitations.

In truly rural or remote areas relative to any available alternative it is as close to a miracle product as one could imagine. If you haven’t had to use other satellite Internet services like BGAN, Iridium, viasat, etc… it’s hard to explain what a revolution Starlink is in every aspect.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#616

Post by advael »

czl wrote: post #543
JohnFen wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have real trouble with "the ends justify the means" arguments. > Is it scammy? Probably. It's the behavior of a con artist. > But he likely got more out of people by pushing this false narrative than would have been otherwise accomplished. Even if that's the case, he could have had the same, or better, effect without the lying. The lying is clearly aimed at gaining investment money and preorders, though, not at som…

> The lying is clearly aimed at gaining investment money and preorders, though, not at some bizarre attempt at motivating engineers. It would be dumb to be caught "lying" over and over and Musk is not know to be dumb. Consider the possibility Musk is using reflexivity to accelerate progress. When people become convinced something is possible and work towards that goal their strong belief changes reality because there…

Do we assess a person's intelligence by what their frothing fanboys think of them now, or is that only for rich celebrities?

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#617

Post by stickfigure »

kelnos wrote: post #422
Powdering7082 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there's a pretty common routine of SpaceX & Tesla having some of the best results in the world for what they are trying to accomplish AND being much worse than what was promised.

And that's one of the (many) frustrating things with Musk: he fairly consistently overpromises and underdelivers. Even if that underdelivering is better than what you can get elsewhere, it still leaves a bad taste in people's mouths.

For the record, I am ecstatic with my Starlink service, no bad taste whatsoever. I upgraded from a rural wireless broadband service that gave me peaks of 10Mbit, for pretty nearly the same price.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#618

Post by adastra22 »

paulsutter wrote: post #560
mdasen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink (and Musk in general) have been over-promising and under-delivering for years now. Starlink claimed 150Mbps back in 2020 and that speeds would double to 300Mbps by the end of 2021.[1] Instead, speeds have halved.[2] At this point, T-Mobile is likely serving more rural high speed internet customers with greater speeds (T-Mobile has 4.2M home internet customers and Ookla's stats show 34% to be rural for 1.4M;…

As a SpaceX shareholder since 2006, I can confirm that they’ve been turning the impossible into the late, very consistently. There is no more impressive company anywhere

Lucky.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#619

Post by toomuchtodo »

grecy wrote: post #611
toomuchtodo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather the federal government just roll out fiber and not put Starlink and Elon in a position of power. That fiber will always be in the ground and available. Elon has shown himself to be unworthy of any position where trust and good judgement is required. If it costs more, that is a premium worth paying. Fool me once. https://www.internetforall.gov/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...…

> just roll out fiber I worked provisioning internet for the Telco that serves basically all of Northern Canada. 33% of Canada's landmass and only 0.3% of its population. We're not talking about cities or even towns here, we're talking about very rural customers. Have you been to rural Alaska, or Montana or Wyoming? I have, and you drive for hours with no cell service, let alone wires in the ground. You are seriously…

Indeed, satellite or long haul fixed wireless will be the only option for some locations. I have been to rural Montana and Wyoming, but not Alaska.

Customers will have to pay for their own StarLink where the FCC won’t. Perhaps we should not be subsidizing folks where it costs $1M to deliver terrestrial connectivity to you. Cheaper to pay them to move.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#620

Post by czl »

advael wrote: post #616
czl wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The lying is clearly aimed at gaining investment money and preorders, though, not at some bizarre attempt at motivating engineers. It would be dumb to be caught "lying" over and over and Musk is not know to be dumb. Consider the possibility Musk is using reflexivity to accelerate progress. When people become convinced something is possible and work towards that goal their strong belief changes reality because there…

Do we assess a person's intelligence by what their frothing fanboys think of them now, or is that only for rich celebrities?

Hater or fanboy does it matter? Do you not understand the concept of reflexivity? Intelligence can show truth. Intelligence can support some existing bias and hide truth. How does your intelligence serve you?
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