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Africans Are Turning to Starlink

economist.com

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Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#181

Post by inemesitaffia »

true_religion wrote: post #113
fluoridation wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can't be right. The satellites can only cover a diameter of 15 miles. Anyone living any further from a ground station is still SOL.

There's only 7 ground stations (or points of presence, I'm not sure what the difference is but they list them separately) or so in Africa, with Nigeria, Botswana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa being the ones that are known and confirmed. Not many people live inside 15 miles of those stations, but Starlink is active in 23 countries.

Ground station is an antenna connected to Fiber. POP is a router/server in a DC (usually) connected to an IX

South Africa has a POP but no ground station.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#182

Post by inemesitaffia »

fluoridation wrote: post #95
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you happen to live within line of site of a cell tower buying a MIMO antenna and beaming internet off of a data plan is also somewhat viable, but Starlink is probably better on bandwidth and packet loss

I wonder about the economics, though. Intuitively it doesn't seem like it can be more efficient to launch constellations of satellites than run kilometers of cables, even if you have to run 20 km for each customer. That's, what, $10k a pop? So around two orders of magnitude cheaper than a satellite? Something isn't adding up for me.

The pre Starlink and pre AI estimate in the US was $20k per mile excluding terminating equipment and right of way and assuming regular soil.

Now everything costs more and they'd rather build AI DC's

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#183

Post by inemesitaffia »

fragmede wrote: post #118
fluoridation wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about the economics, though. Intuitively it doesn't seem like it can be more efficient to launch constellations of satellites than run kilometers of cables, even if you have to run 20 km for each customer. That's, what, $10k a pop? So around two orders of magnitude cheaper than a satellite? Something isn't adding up for me.

Intuitively, what's the cost to get to orbit? SpaceX's Falcon reusable rocket lowered the cost to get to space by an order of magnitude or so, so you have to factor that in.

From the S1 satellites are $600k and launch is under $20 million

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#184

Post by inemesitaffia »

fluoridation wrote: post #149
elcritch wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink is manufacturing the satellites at scale. They’re likely to cost not much differently from large ground based 5G towers at some point. The antennas are “digital” so no expensive mechanical systems needed.

Even if I grant that, radio towers don't deorbit after a few years. I have no idea what you mean by antennas being digital.

Older sats (and OneWeb) use parabolic dishes. Some fixed, some steerable.

Apart from being SDR's, Starlink and its newer competition use phased array antennas. So they can provide extra capacity to denser areas.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#185

Post by inemesitaffia »

colechristensen wrote: post #100
theoreticalmal wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could have been a revolutionary way of accessing the internet before Starlink. Grain elevators are everywhere in the US Midwest. Can’t believe it wasn’t capitalized on

It is indeed all over the place, they just didn't want to upgrade equipment once it was there.

Probably margin issues.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#186

Post by solid_fuel »

rayiner wrote: post #138
kappar wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Elon musk is a fascist and does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

He has also literally killed more people in Africa via his illegal self-enriching actions at DOGE than he has provided internet service to. So you can take this stupid hero worship and shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#187

Post by nbardy »

rapind wrote: post #150
dmix wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ontario ended a $100M contract with Starlink to help connect 15k rural and first nations households because Elon was connected with the US administration when tariffs were announced https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/starlink-deal-void-on... AFAIK there has been no replacement contract since it was killed in 2025

Elon has total control of Starlink and he’s currently enjoying his bond villain phase. I am very happy my tax dollars are not going into his pockets. It’s not a crusade. You send him your money if you want. It’s none of my business. Pretty sure they are doing a bunch of AI training with your data now too. Opt-in by default. So yeah, no thanks.

[flagged]

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#188

Post by panick21_ »

zuzululu wrote: post #126
rayiner wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Starlink shout out! My brother in law worked on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska a couple of summers ago. They are at sea for weeks and keep fishing until the boat is full. He's done crabbing trips before and was basically out of communication for a month. On this trip, they had Starlink and were able to send us pictures and even FaceTime. Starlink delivered a huge quality of life improvement to guys who work…

man I am happy to hear that. in Europe there is still widespread cynicism and vitrol against anything Elon Musk especially Starlink. I think that many people appreciate Starlink in rural parts but your story is one of many that are just amazing

Claiming that its 'especially Starlink' is just not true. I heard lots of discussion about Musk but very little about Starlink. Starlink mostly gets discussed in terms of space policy and people who care about that.

That said people are somewhat right that in most of Western and Central Europe there isn't a huge need for Starlink, it will be quite niche. But I have not heard any 'vitrol' against Starlink.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#189

Post by zuzululu »

leonidasrup wrote: post #165
zuzululu wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man I am happy to hear that. in Europe there is still widespread cynicism and vitrol against anything Elon Musk especially Starlink. I think that many people appreciate Starlink in rural parts but your story is one of many that are just amazing

Elon Musk is quite cotroversial figure for Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy On one hand Elon Musk and JD Vance supported far-right German party AfD, a party with strong links to Russian. On the other hand Starlink helps Ukraine in the fight against Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfD_pro-Russia_movement https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2025/02/24/germany-...

[flagged]

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#190

Post by zuzululu »

dmix wrote: post #139
zuzululu wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man I am happy to hear that. in Europe there is still widespread cynicism and vitrol against anything Elon Musk especially Starlink. I think that many people appreciate Starlink in rural parts but your story is one of many that are just amazing

Ontario ended a $100M contract with Starlink to help connect 15k rural and first nations households because Elon was connected with the US administration when tariffs were announced https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/starlink-deal-void-on... AFAIK there has been no replacement contract since it was killed in 2025

There is no replacement because the pockets of Canada's political inner circle hasn't be lined yet with someone that can match Starlink

I think that a more expensive and crappier version of Starlink is going to be offered to Canadians , looking at how its run as an outsider.

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