Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

starlink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 374 posts

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

#341

Post by kortilla »

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.

>Which is ridiculously poor.

That’s HD video. The alternative for these people is even slower DSL or heavily throttled LTE tethering if they are lucky enough to have cell coverage. You’re living in a privileged bubble.

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

#342

Post by kortilla »

threeseed wrote: post #167
why_at wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This would simply create a digital divide further increasing inequality in rural areas. Not sure what you mean? The more remote you get the better your bandwidth gets because you are sharing it with fewer people. This is the opposite of most ISPs which tend to ignore rural areas.

Its about giving slow satellite to rural areas as opposed to fibre.

Starlink doesn’t prevent fiber and there has been zero interest in giving fiber to these people with or without subsidies. So it’s about giving fast satellite internet to people in rural areas or leaving them with much worse than options.

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

#343

Post by kortilla »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #188
gpm wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That number looks to be before multiplexing, so it's not that bad. If 10% of the people in the area are using the internet at the same time (as in are actively downloading at full speed, not just are scrolling through already downloaded content) it should go up to 72 mbps per person, and so on.

It's not actually those numbers. For one thing, bandwidth is split between upload and download. 700Gbps isn't the actual capacity either, just the theoretical bandwidth. It's less in practice, limited by things like gateway capacity etc. the bandwidth also isn't evenly allocated between terminals because starlink has service tiers like other ISPs. Terminals are also not people. They're usually shared by households th…

You’re just making shit up at this point so it’s not clear how to respond. I use Starlink in a city of 300k people in the mountains in the west and never see The bandwidth is not split between upload and download, it’s very explicitly optimized for download capacity which is what most people are interested in. If you want to upload much beyond 15mbps, Starlink is going to suck for you regardless of congestion.

>There's very good reasons starlink has such low limits on terminals per cell.

High density areas are broken into smaller cells to help with this. don’t forget that the limit doesn’t apply to roaming users either.

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

#344

Post by inemesitaffia »

svnt wrote: post #334
astroid wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow quite the own. You really did something there. Do you mind demonstrating how you can unpackage the device and connect straight to the internet without going through the activation hurdles? If not, this is the most irrelevant piece of information you could possibly use to make your misguided point. First responders on their own volition brought StarLink terminals on site, which REQUIRE ACTIVATION regardless of…

I am honestly not sure what point you are arguing. I have personally activated, paid for, and sent on expeditions multiple Starlink systems, including the newer marine version. You seem very upset about something I’m not talking about.

Now you don't have to bother with the activation. That's the key. You can defer that for the next 30 days. Just switch it on. That's the offer.

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

#345

Post by inemesitaffia »

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…

It's not a promotion or promotional offer. It's an aid for people who have activation issues.

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

#346

Post by seadan83 »

seadan83 wrote: post #333
astroid wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the last thing I am going to say to you, after twice now I have told you I am done with this conversation. There is absolutely nothing further to discuss between us, but I want to make this point abundantly clear for anyone who is clicking 'expand' on all of your downvoted comments: "Is that a real example?" Yes. It was one of the people who were specifically asking that this action be taken, after they clean…

> There is absolutely nothing further to discuss between us I would agree it is better ended. > I want to make this point abundantly clear for anyone who is clicking 'expand' on all of your downvoted comments In a similar vein, you did not identify any fake quotes that you accused me of, nor identified any unsupported claims (though I concede you could have identified one, which was poorly written and reasonably coul…

At the risk of re-opening this..

I can concisely now say that all along I have only been asking: "is this useful?" I would postulate, for the starlink and month free to be useful the following are needed: (A) access to the device, (B) ability to pay (C) meaningful numbers deployed (D) no other alternatives (ie: existing conventional means)

We hashed out A, B, D already. C is difficult to know, perhaps only SpaceX can answer. Counting twitter responses can give us a minimum, but that is only so useful.

This response from Astroid I think exemplifies how this conversation went off the rails:

> How poor appalachia is entirely irrelevant, the people aren't helicoptering out to bring StarLinks back to trick the community into getting locked into hardware.

This is an example of arguing against an imagined conversation. Who is able, and how they are paying for the devices is important - otherwise they are not useful. The suggestion that I am instead implying a nefarious motive to get device lock in is imagined. That was not this conversation. A case study of what it looks like when people are talking at each other and not to each other.

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

#347

Post by seadan83 »

mlindner wrote: post #336
seadan83 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Giving the equipment out for free*, 30 days free, and no return charge would smell of true disaster relief rather than promo. * perhaps equipment charge after 30 days, or a half off on the equipment after 30 days. Those would very feel reasonable.

The equipment is properly free for many people and many people had previously bought it for backup.

> The equipment is properly free for many people

I'm curious how do you know this exactly, and how many is many?

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

#348

Post by inemesitaffia »

seadan83 wrote: post #346
seadan83 wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is absolutely nothing further to discuss between us I would agree it is better ended. > I want to make this point abundantly clear for anyone who is clicking 'expand' on all of your downvoted comments In a similar vein, you did not identify any fake quotes that you accused me of, nor identified any unsupported claims (though I concede you could have identified one, which was poorly written and reasonably coul…

At the risk of re-opening this.. I can concisely now say that all along I have only been asking: "is this useful?" I would postulate, for the starlink and month free to be useful the following are needed: (A) access to the device, (B) ability to pay (C) meaningful numbers deployed (D) no other alternatives (ie: existing conventional means) We hashed out A, B, D already. C is difficult to know, perhaps only SpaceX can…

C:

More than whatever FEMA is providing. I've seen video of single people with more dishes than FEMA claimed.

This is access at central locations where people gather. Retail stores, homes, government agencies like Police and fire, County Offices etc

It's free at the point of use to residents so questions about paying are words in wind.

This devices are for the use of first responders and temporary access for local residents. By first responders I don't mean government, not even State/Local.

They already had dishes, before FEMA was there, before the cell providers were there, before any SpaceX intervention. and today there's still people without access to communications. Towers still gone, wired services out. And more starlink dishes coming in. There's flooded towns officially out of the disaster area where both FEMA and SpaceX aren't.

For many people in the region, starlink dishes whether directly, on towers, or on cells on wheels or some other SATCOM provider was the first time they were able to communicate post disaster.

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

#349

Post by inemesitaffia »

seadan83 wrote: post #347
mlindner wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The equipment is properly free for many people and many people had previously bought it for backup.

> The equipment is properly free for many people I'm curious how do you know this exactly, and how many is many?

There's people paying for it, the people using it are using it for free

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

#350

Post by rdsnsca »

Alupis wrote: post #169
throwaway984393 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, in a few years these dishes will be $600 paperweights. We need real rural broadband.

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…

They are actually running fiber almost everywhere in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Source : https://internet.buildns.ca

Post reply on HN