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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

#201

Post by catlikesshrimp »

pkaye wrote: post #159
catlikesshrimp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only mobile provider in Costa Rica was government owned, hugely profitable, subsidized internet and landlines, and was mandated to provide internet to every single citizen. In urban areas, they had to make sure every single house had mobile coverage. And courts made them comply. Then came the US around year 2002 and forced the country to a free market, and paradise was lost. Everything is US level now (more expen…

Did Costa Rica get an IMF loan around that time?

Back then, Costa Rica was nothing like other American countries, a single loan wasn't a very effective lever. This was the lever:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic%E2%80%93C...

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#202

Post by throwaway48476 »

threeseed wrote: post #130
kortilla wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 700Gbps max per cell > having extremely low customer density I think you need to define “extremely low” because 700gbps is plenty for several thousand people. And the question was specifically about everyone in rural areas switching. If you go by rural being That sounds fine considering standard consumer usage patterns mean you’ll get 10x that as an individual even in peak times. That’s also assuming maximum densit…

> that lands at 7.2 mbps per person Which is ridiculously poor. This would simply create a digital divide further increasing inequality in rural areas.

That's fine for disaster response.

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#203

Post by h0l0cube »

qsdf38100 wrote: post #189
h0l0cube wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think intention matters here. It’s great for those people who are helped by Mr. Beast, but it’s coming from a place of ego and profit, not charity. Happy for those helped, but it’s still a little unseemly. However, I do think Musk genuinely likes to help people^ (e.g. Puerto Rico and Ukraine), but also I feel his response to the (valid) rejection of his help by the divers in Thailand was ungracious and maybe a litt…

[flagged]

> He likes to help people if he can come out as a hero, otherwise you’re a "pedo"

I made reference to exactly this if you read carefully. I actually think this rejection is an inflection point in his behavior. He ought to have been more gracious and received the rejection without hurt to his ego (and reacting as he did). I think since then he’s wrongly viewed that event as ‘No good deed goes unpunished’ and become more and more defiant in his attitude.

> what would make you reconsider seeing him as a genuinely helpful person?

I don’t believe that people are immutably good or evil. Certainly I would regard him returning to a more ‘can-do’ and less combative role in society to be very ‘helpful’. He has a history of effectively marshaling resources towards difficult problems, he has a lot of capital at his disposal, and if he could return to doing that in a more egalitarian fashion he could literally change the world for the better. But first he’d have to put his ego in the back seat

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#204

Post by qsdf38100 »

ClownsAbound wrote: post #193
qsdf38100 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Or put another way Musk is anti censorship, anti war in Ukraine, anti complying with the Harris/Biden agenda to deplatform political rivals such as they did 4 days after Biden took office, forcing Pre Musk Twitter/X and Facebook to do their bidding - or else. Turns out the ones squawking loudest about the other being a threat to democracy are in fact the ones actively working against our Constitutional Rights. And I’…

[flagged]

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#205

Post by chgs »

FredPret wrote: post #163
chgs wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason the US has the largest economy in the world. It’s modern colonialism.

Oh yeah. All of the 25 000 000 000 000 dollars the US generates a year is vacuumed right out of the palm trees of the third world.

It relies almost entirely on the massive US might, military, cultural, diplomatic.

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#206

Post by mysterydip »

deelowe wrote: post #72
nativeit wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious…it’s not been a week yet? It certainly feels longer. Glad to know they’re alright. My family is in Swannanoa, and still without power and water.

It has not. I have family impacted who still does not have power. One week will be tomorrow.

I still do not have power but Duke Energy is getting it back on one neighborhood away from me right now. Hoping tomorrow is our turn.

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#207

Post by sneak »

ivewonyoung wrote: post #76
sneak wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A license is definitely required to operate Starlink, just not by you. They tried not servicing Crimea due to an unwillingness to get involved in the war, and the DoD quickly made them toe the geopolitical line. (They are also a huge customer of a military-only service called Starshield, also run by SpaceX/Starlink, which either runs separately on the same Starlink satellites, or is dedicated Starshield satellites wi…

> They tried not servicing Crimea due to an unwillingness to get involved in the war, and the DoD quickly made them toe the geopolitical line I am confused, it's illegal for Starlink to prove access to Russia and Russian occupied areas like Crimea because of US sanctions. So essentially the opposite of what you're claiming.

In short, the Ukrainians (with whom it is indeed legal to do business) wanted to use Starlink as c&c for drone strikes in occupied Crimea.

It was off, per sanctions (and other reasons) as you note.

SpaceX was opposed to turning it back on, presumably wishing to stay out of the geopolitical calculus of the war. They do have a rather lot to lose if war extends to space.

The DoD overruled them, either via requirements for Starshield, or by just laying down the law. Starlink (or perhaps Starshield, same difference) works (for Ukrainian operations) in Crimea now, last I heard.

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#208

Post by mysterydip »

jrflowers wrote: post #180
ultra_nick wrote: post #168

It's nice that Musk and his companies always seem to be willing to provide free emergency services. Over various disasters they've provided free energy, internet, and cell service. I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing. Same with Mr.Beast's charity acts. There's something wrong with people who do nothing and hate on other people doing charity.

> I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing. It is possible that people are interpreting this 30 day promotional period as “Starlink offers hurricane survivors $120/mo internet access starting November 2nd”, which would not be factually inaccurate assuming today as the start date of the promotion. $120/mo is roughly double the average broadband cost in e.g. the Asheville ar…

I looked into signing up. It was over $300 up front, after the first 30 days waived. No thanks.

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#209

Post by sneak »

vel0city wrote: post #148
sneak wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a surprising number of stereotypical american self-identified “constitutionalist” types on there, which results in funny conversations when I speak to them (without a license, natch) about the 10th amendment and the FCC/access to spectrum.

Electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly. Hardware which creates/receives radio waves pretty much constantly transits state lines as well, I don't know too many radio manufacturers which restrict sale to only the state they operate in. You should probably read the constitution first about things which are interstate and who has permissions to regulate it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce…

It’s still against the law in the US to transmit on many bands without a license even if you build your own radio from scratch at home. Talking at a distance has nothing inherently to do with commerce.

We basically punted on the 10th amendment with things like the FCC and DOE (education, not energy).

Re: Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

#210

Post by Sparyjerry »

ta1243 wrote: post #179
Alupis wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have real rural broadband today. You just need to be willing to pay for installation out of pocket. When an ISP runs fiber to a new building (be it in a business park or rural farm), the math is almost entirely based on recuperating their installation costs - which they often pay for entirely out of their pocket. Your entire first contract term is usually just paying back the installation costs alone... For s…

One wonders how we ran electricity out everywhere. Running a fibre is about the same cost as running a power cable.

Above ground power lines make up most of the it. A pole and wire isn't that expensive. Burying is drastically more expensive.
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