If we consider President Javier Milei’s perspectives on monopolies, as articulated in his address at the World Economic Forum [1], we can apply his reasoning to the case of Starlink’s potential dominance in direct-to-phone satellite connectivity. In his statements, Milei challenges the traditional view that monopolies inherently lead to market inefficiencies. Instead, he assumes that monopolistic positions, when achi…
Starlink Direct to Cell
731–740 of 831 posts
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#732Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the fact that they haven't may be kind of indicative. Last I searched it had supported maximum local device density of just handful in miles.
That can't be true. I've stayed in campgrounds with dozens of Starlink dishes deployed.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#733Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if they are dead in the water or not. However, they have until July 30, 2026 to deploy half of their fleet or they lose the FCC granted frequencies. The fleet is 3232 satellites. So far they launched 2 test satellites. They contracted most of the launches to either new rockets or ones in development, like New Glenn, Ariane 6, ULA Vulcan. They actually had to contract three Falcon 9 launches to help out with…
The FCC will be lenient, they have no reason not to be unless Musk is leaning on them.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#734Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trump is not a native either, his family is German and Scottish (just checked). So far as I know a native has never held the presidency in the US.
What silly political posturing. Native-born is the specific reference, and a perfectly valid one. By your logic, if the current descendants of people who have been here for many centuries by now aren't natives, than vast parts of the world's population are also not natives of the places where their families have lived for centuries. Why not go further and say that the "natives" also aren't natives since they also mig…
> By your logic, if the current descendants of people who have been here for many centuries by now aren't native.
It's not my logic. The term Native American has an agreed, standard meaning. Trump's family does not meet that meaning. My comment was not an attack on your political views.Are you suggesting that being born in a place makes one native? I'll accept that definition. Now go convince the rest of the world to update their definition of Native American.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#735Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if they are dead in the water or not. However, they have until July 30, 2026 to deploy half of their fleet or they lose the FCC granted frequencies. The fleet is 3232 satellites. So far they launched 2 test satellites. They contracted most of the launches to either new rockets or ones in development, like New Glenn, Ariane 6, ULA Vulcan. They actually had to contract three Falcon 9 launches to help out with…
The quick maths indicates that to achieve this, they’d have to launch 22.5 satellites per week every week for the next 18 months until that deadline. SpaceX seems to be launching at nearly twice that rate, having launched [1565 satellites]( https://spaceflightnow.com/2024/10/30/live-coverage-spacex-t... .) in the first 10 months of this year.
I am sure it's doable if all the space providers work together and there aren't any showstoppers.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#736Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree a (temporary) monopoly is totally OK. Normal in fact. But the parent comment was specifically celebrating a long term, unassailable monopoly.
If you read it uncharitably. If you read it charitably, the “it’s awesome” can be referring to how quickly they made something work that otherwise wouldn’t for many more years.
I feel like you are being overly charitable. The ‘it’s awesome’ comes directly after the ‘it’s over’
But TBH I’m pretty cyclical at the best of times.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#737Earlier quoted context omitted.
There can only be one Main Character, and Trump doesn’t share the spotlight with anybody. Elon will fuck up and his money won’t save him from what comes after that.
Elon knows well enough to act as a supporting character. He can't run for presidency anyway given he's not a native, and no other political post would be interesting enough. There'll be no falling out.
It sounds to me like the 22nd Amendment and the Article II natural-born citizenship requirement are also only enforceable by Congress. If you're making your plans based on a theory that Congress is able to do the right thing, or that the Supreme Court is not a hyper-partisan institution, I would have a strong C because plans A and B are pretty questionable.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#738Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean by per-launch capital cost? Maintenance? The increase in value of a F9 booster after use is more than the near-negligible per-launch maintenance cost.
> The increase in value of a F9 booster after use is more than the near-negligible per-launch maintenance cost. Do we have anything proving this besides the self-serving word of a privately owned company? I'm not saying it's false, I have no idea either. But there's a lot of highly specific speculation going on here, based on no reliable source.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#739Earlier quoted context omitted.
You…wouldn’t be bullish on the most successful businessman in the history of the world? Sometimes I come here for a good laugh
Elon is successful yes but why do other men feel the need to stroke him off online all the time? Strange behavior. Are you expecting a kickback?
I suppose it’s some deep personality trait difference that makes us right wingers appreciate his work and what makes leftists hate his guts.
Re: Starlink Direct to Cell
#740Earlier quoted context omitted.
> All nation's governments will absolutely ensure, overtly or covertly, that their national regulators limit any space-based supra-national system from being able to threaten their national telephony and data carriers The ITU is pretty overt about how frequency allocation governance works. Absolutely no one wants a free-for-all frequency regime, for a multitude of reasons - not even SpaceX. You may recall that Huawei…
- "...without having broken any laws, due to fears of future abuse..." Well, how did those predictions of the future perform? - "The Chinese government espionage campaign that has deeply penetrated more than a dozen U.S. telecommunications companies is the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history — by far,” a senior U.S. senator told The Washington Post in an interview this week." https://www.washingtonpost.com/na…