How long does it take to rebuild fiber infrastructure? This is not a kindness, it is a promotion. Six months would be a kindness.
It can be both at the same time, nothing wrong with that. Win-win is real, not everything is zero sum.
Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
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Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They're mostly getting the hardware for free. No. Ordering this costs $320 and takes 1-2 weeks. They even charge for shipping and handling. By the time you get this, internet and cell service will most likely be re-established. I live 20 miles outside of Asheville, this is basically profiteering off a disaster imo. Much easier for the richest man on Earth to simply install a hundred base stations himself. Instead,…
To be clear, I didn't mean for free from Starlink, I meant free via donation. I follow a half dozen accounts in the area, and they're all donating a lot. Here is one, for example. Ignore the politics and just scroll through the Starlink posts - https://x.com/robbystarbuck Here's another that claims Starlink drove the units straight out. Unclear if they were free or not. https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix/status/1841823155…
Nothing personal but that's "a lot" of vague, qualified, and loaded phrases like "mostly free" "more than the US govt" and such ... but the source is just some guy's twitter page?
Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#43Despite the hate on the promo the tech they offer is still pretty cool. Only way I knew my in-laws were safe near Asheville was because one of their neighbors had starlink and a generator. Took a week for them to get power and cell phone service back and there is no way to get to them without a helicopter so if it wasn't for the product we would have just learned that they were alright.
To ask a tech question: how much capacity does Starlink have? If every single person in US rural areas switches to Starlink, can the system handle it? What's the bandwidth/customers/capacity limit for the service? (I'm obviously not talking about emergencies, where degraded bandwidth is acceptable.)
I don't know if that kind of information is public. Starlink is continually adding new satellites, and each one adds bandwidth capability. Likewise with end user ground station hardware updates and spectrum purchases (at least the former is happening on a regular basis), capacity likewise goes up.
I don't believe there is a theoretical or practical upper limit which would exclude very wide adoption of Starlink and similar competitors.
Put in another way, I think it is possible that in a decade or two the only cell phone/data service that doesn't come from orbit will be a few terrestrial towers in dense downtown urban areas and around things like sports venues.
Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#44Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#45Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#46We have a free solution already but not as well known - Ham Radio. You can even send email over WinLink.
I'm grateful that I don't need a license to operate a Starlink dish here in Starlink's home country, yet.
Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#47Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#48Why doesn't the government have a few planes or blimps fly overhead with base stations from the major mobile carriers?
That sounds expensive and like it'd help Americans
Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#49We have a free solution already but not as well known - Ham Radio. You can even send email over WinLink.
Has using encryption on amateur radio been legalized?
How is this even enforced? Don't you have plausible deniability by claiming you just wanted to send high entropy random noise?
Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
#50We have a free solution already but not as well known - Ham Radio. You can even send email over WinLink.
Has using encryption on amateur radio been legalized?
Nope. And it probably won't ever be.
The bandwidth allocated to amateur radio is incredibly valuable. (All of the spectrum allocated to ham radio would probably be worth literally billions if the FCC were allowed to auction it off to the private sector.)
The only thing preventing folks from attempting to use up all that spectrum for commercial purposes is the lack of encryption, which allows the ham radio community to self-police. If the traffic is encrypted, you no longer have any way to distinguish legitimate amateur traffic from commercial interests.
The flip side of this is that the government really doesn't want amateur radio being used to set up otherwise legal transmitters that could potentially be numbers stations for foreign spies. So they consider this one a national security issue and kinda do pay attention to it.
If you want to encrypt, use WiFi mesh networks if you're okay with the range limitations. If you really need ultra-long-range communication, your options are either (a) no encryption so the government+community knows what you're doing, or (b) you pay for a private service, who then inherits the legal obligation to monitor what you're doing with it.