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Africans Are Turning to Starlink

economist.com

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Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#51

Post by fluoridation »

LorenDB wrote: post #4

I live in rural America. The story is quite similar here. My options were (a) cellular hotspot, which is slow and expensive, or (b) satellite internet, which is also slow and expensive. Despite government programs, there are no cable/fiber/DSL options in my area. Starlink fills the gap nicely; it's not blazingly fast, but pretty much meets FCC broadband definitions for $55/mo.

I don't understand. Starlink satellites are just routers to ground stations. Why are there no wired connections available? Do the connections not reach the famous last mile?

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#52

Post by dreambuffer »

drnick1 wrote: post #46
Havoc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>one of the primary reasons it has not been allowed in South Africa. That's just nonsense. The regulator has been very clear on what the hold up is. A ECNS license is needed, which in turn requires 30% black ownership which musky boy isn't willing to do and isn't likely to change his mind on given his stance on DEI. That's why the communication minister tried to create an alternative pathway around the 30% requiremen…

> requires 30% black ownership What an absurd requirement.

The goal is to hedge national security risk by giving ownership of key industries to native South Africans and especially those who have historically been denied economic opportunities by the apartheid government.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#53

Post by JumpCrisscross »

LorenDB wrote: post #4

I live in rural America. The story is quite similar here. My options were (a) cellular hotspot, which is slow and expensive, or (b) satellite internet, which is also slow and expensive. Despite government programs, there are no cable/fiber/DSL options in my area. Starlink fills the gap nicely; it's not blazingly fast, but pretty much meets FCC broadband definitions for $55/mo.

I live in a rural neighborhood with fiber. Multiple neighbors go with Starlink because it’s cheaper and good enough.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#54

Post by robear »

stevage wrote: post #47
robear wrote: post #22

I am not sure how to write this without it sounding like an ad for Starlink. It definitely isn't. Just trying to add an anecdote to the conversation. I live in Canada and there are a small number of people that I know that have given up faster, cheaper internet from Telus/cable/etc for Starlink. I think what it comes down to is people are tried of the two year contracts and having to negotiate a better rate and never…

How do they know Starlink isn't going to jack the prices up?

They aren't thinking that far ahead. It is just the immediate rate they are on. If it doesn't work out, they can always go back to Telus, etc at a way better rate than they had as an existing customer.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#55

Post by consensus1 »

fluoridation wrote: post #51
LorenDB wrote: post #4

I live in rural America. The story is quite similar here. My options were (a) cellular hotspot, which is slow and expensive, or (b) satellite internet, which is also slow and expensive. Despite government programs, there are no cable/fiber/DSL options in my area. Starlink fills the gap nicely; it's not blazingly fast, but pretty much meets FCC broadband definitions for $55/mo.

I don't understand. Starlink satellites are just routers to ground stations. Why are there no wired connections available? Do the connections not reach the famous last mile?

Yes. The last mile problem is legitimately so difficult in rural areas that it is more cost effective to launch a constellation of 10,000+ satellites than it is to run the wires.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#56

Post by TacticalCoder »

mbreese wrote: post #13

Isn’t this a similar argument to how Africa adopted mobile phones significantly faster than other regions? When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations. Especially if there’s no infrastructure needed to install. As others mentioned, It’s a very similar situation for rural America. My dad lives in a rural setting, and for years could only get s…

> When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations.

Same with electricity: there are many rural places in Africa where solar panels + batteries are a revolution.

But then there's a reason why a country with more than 3x the number of people in the US was "missing" technologies: Africa is, overall, very poor (GDP per capita in Africa is something like 1/40th of the GDP per capita in the US: 1/40th!). So there's a limit to how far the jump is possible: as someone commented, most of Africa is still on 3G and it's not clear if StarLink shall be able to find customers rich enough to buy their services.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#58

Post by HWR_14 »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #56
mbreese wrote: post #13

Isn’t this a similar argument to how Africa adopted mobile phones significantly faster than other regions? When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations. Especially if there’s no infrastructure needed to install. As others mentioned, It’s a very similar situation for rural America. My dad lives in a rural setting, and for years could only get s…

> When you don’t have an established wired infrastructure, it becomes significantly easier to jump technology generations. Same with electricity: there are many rural places in Africa where solar panels + batteries are a revolution. But then there's a reason why a country with more than 3x the number of people in the US was "missing" technologies: Africa is, overall, very poor (GDP per capita in Africa is something l…

> it's not clear if StarLink shall be able to find customers rich enough to buy their services.

Of course they will. If the prices are too high they can just lower them to whatever people can afford. It's not that expensive to cover Africa's customers.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#59

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

consensus1 wrote: post #55
fluoridation wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. Starlink satellites are just routers to ground stations. Why are there no wired connections available? Do the connections not reach the famous last mile?

Yes. The last mile problem is legitimately so difficult in rural areas that it is more cost effective to launch a constellation of 10,000+ satellites than it is to run the wires.

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

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#60

Post by SpaceNugget »

dudul wrote: post #43
grebc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure regular internet access is changing the risk like you say, but I agree that people like connectivity and hence will do more risky things because they think it’s safer. Rescues even with EPIRB’s can still be difficult.

How is it not safer to have access to information and be able to contact people from your remote location? Does it make you absolutely 100% safe? No. Does it suddenly nullify any potential risky scenario? No. But it is pretty idiotic to say that it doesn't change the risk. It very clearly changes the risk and reduces it drastically.

I want to clarify that no, Starlink _really_ does not "drastically reduce the risk" of remote outdoor activities. Looking it up, Starlink doesn't even provide it's gps location to connected devices. And regardless, actually rugged communication capable handheld gps units already exist and have for a while. And they don't require that you bring a whole satellite dish and some kind of battery pack with you on your wilderness expeditions. What's actually idiotic, and getting lots of people in serious trouble these days, is going out unprepared. Don't risk your life, or search and rescue workers lives because you think you'll use Claude or whatever to figure it out while you are out there.

Things can go very wrong very quickly. If you go do risky activities far from help you should be prepared and know what you are getting yourself into and how to get yourself back out of it ahead of time.

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