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Africans Are Turning to Starlink

economist.com

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Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#191

Post by ponector »

snohobro wrote: post #84

I worked on the Starlink program in the Redmond facility during the growth from a couple sats as proof of concept to thousands of sats regularly providing internet. I’ve since moved on to other ventures, but I’m still incredibly proud of what I did there. Mostly because it brought internet to those unserved and those who no one was ever going to serve, at least any time soon. I believe the internet and access to the…

You also brought internet to the long range kamikaze drones enabling hunting mode there.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#193

Post by karmakurtisaani »

nbardy wrote: post #187
rapind wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

Someone did not follow the news last year.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#194

Post by kmarc »

nbardy wrote: post #187
rapind wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

Does a nazi salut make him one?

Regardless, the technology itself is amazing, and eventually should (will) be common infrastructure

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#195

Post by overfeed »

dmix wrote: post #152
rapind wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Tax payers are already responsible for the fees paid to cancel the contract early, but won't tell the public how much it cost. They also already paid for a test run with a first nations community in 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/spacex-deal-ontario-s... I personally see more value in connecting poor and isolated rural communities. Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a…

> Plus I highly doubt a provincial government contract in Canada will be a major influence on a Elon's dumb twitter politics.

I don't think the decision was meant to influence, rather, it's self-defense against said "Elon's dumb Twitter politics."

Americans having challenges conceptualizing how problematic Starlink is to non-Americans: imagine the same satellite service was provided by Huawei - but helmed by Chinese Elon.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#196

Post by sjducb »

WhereIsTheTruth wrote: post #159
bridgettegraham wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In South Africa we are not allowed to make use of Starlink. The reason: our government insists that the owners of Starlink give > 50% of ownership of the contract exclusively to black people (our discriminatory BBEEE that explicitly states, openly, in any advert in public, that a company is allowed to ONLY EMPLOY black people and not white people), which Elon Musk and his company refuses to do (good for them). That i…

And rightfully so Remember the US backlash against Huawaie over 5G towers? African nations should have the exact same sovereignty/national security concerns regarding US tech, specially given the well documented history of the NSA and CIA leveraging their digital platforms for intelligence/spying It's actually funny how the discourse is never the same when it come to US interests vs sovereign nations

There are lots of white South Africans. I believe musk is one. Starlink is majority owned by a South African.

The law isn’t about foreign/doneatic. It’s about black/white.

Increasingly this state authorised racism is now extending to black people. The violent ethnic cleansing against black Milawians by black South Africans is terrifying.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#198

Post by wqaatwt »

zuzululu wrote: post #189
leonidasrup wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

> won majority of UK are being accused of being far right, nazi, russian.

Labour? I don’t think many people call Starmer any of those things..

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#199

Post by angry_octet »

Starlink is going to completely gut the local telcos, terrestrial fiber is never going to have the $ to achieve critical mass. So when, eventually, SpaceX or the US Govt wants to apply leverage over Africa, they will have to bend the knee. Or we'll have a hiatus in launches or a space war, and as they constellation burns up so will internet access. Africa will be in the dark.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#200

Post by angry_octet »

bridgettegraham wrote: post #116
IFC_LLC wrote: post #104

I've lived in SA for about a year. I would have paid a lot of money for something like Starlink a couple of years ago. Where you have internet it does not work while the local power is out. And it was not that stable and at times we were sitting 10 hours without power a day. And that's in Joburg. And 5g was hard to come by. So I can only imagine that locals are happy to see such a thing. Especially if you can run it…

In South Africa we are not allowed to make use of Starlink. The reason: our government insists that the owners of Starlink give > 50% of ownership of the contract exclusively to black people (our discriminatory BBEEE that explicitly states, openly, in any advert in public, that a company is allowed to ONLY EMPLOY black people and not white people), which Elon Musk and his company refuses to do (good for them). That i…

When Elon's dead this problem will go away.
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