7 ms·
Why do they give a damn if people are subscribing in the US and using their product in Africa? If anything they should be using their position to obliterate th
by struant 2y ago
Why do they give a damn if people are subscribing in the US and using their product in Africa?
If anything they should be using their position to obliterate the whole idea of region-locking anything.
- wkat4242 2y agoStarlink relies on local downlinks (the laser link traffic is of course limited) so they probably just don't have the capacity in those regions. Or lack the permission to offer the service. Many countries forbid most satellite equipment, even big ones like India.
- loceng 2y agoA single Starlink could service bandwidth to a whole lot of people through local wired connections - which is a serious disruption to the existing industrial complex-government power structure; is what comes to my mind first.
- Angostura 2y ago> existing industrial complex-government power structure Or local businesses as they are sometimes known
- loceng 2y agoUntil there's consolidation and it's no longer local but national or multi-national, or global companies like Blackrock et al who own controlling shares and board member positions to steer the companies how they choose. But there is a good point and pattern to notice here, that further consolidation into a global companies providing internet access put resources and power into even fewer hands, but now that power is no longer being held by potentially authoritarian politicians and their Gestapo. The solution for that means requiring multiple satellite internet providers, and people paying attention always to prevent a critical mass or majority of them from capture by bad actors - which we know happened with MSM consolidation, as well as more recently with social media platforms all illegally colluding with the US government - exposed due to Elon buying Twitter-X and releasing the Twitter Files. But what point were you trying to make? That Starlink is bad for local economies because people are paying a non-local company?
- Angostura 2y ago> But what point were you trying to make? That Starlink is bad for local economies because people are paying a non-local company? It's certainly a good way to suppress local infrastructure development, yes
- bradley13 2y ago"Or lack the permission to offer the service." Musk once said that, in that case, the country's leaders could "shake their fists impotently at the sky". Which is imho the right answer.
- cubefox 2y agoThis would likely mean Starlink dishes imported from the US would get confiscated at customs.
- yestes33 2y ago[flagged]
- Onavo 2y agoHis other businesses will most likely get sanctioned, employees associated with them will conveniently get searched and detained on trumped up charges whenever they visit said countries. It's very difficult because Musk's businesses are hardware businesses, and with hardware there is a supply chain involved. It's not difficult for a state level entity to create problems for his businesses.
- kjksf 2y agoThat was in the context of hostile nations, like Russia or Iran or Cuba, where Starlink has no chance of being allowed. Everywhere else it makes much more sense to get permission to operate (vs. trying some pirate operation where Starlink is treated like a contraband that needs to be illegally imported into the country, the payments must happen stealthily, you get no support etc.).
- lxgr 2y agoUntil one of them shoots down one of his satellites and ruins LEO for everybody. Space as a shared resource (as opposed to e.g. airspace) only works if countries (and corporations) respect each others sovereignty.
- CamperBob2 2y agoHow is Musk responsible for what amounts to a terroristic atrocity committed by an evil regime?
- ranger_danger 2y ago> Many countries forbid most satellite equipment, even big ones like India. Do you have a source for this?
- wkat4242 2y agoHere for example: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/64974/why-are-satellite-phones-strictly-banned-in-india https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/64974/why-are-sat... Inmarsat is the only exception for phones.
- tiahura 2y agoThere are simple well documented answers to your question in the article you didn’t read and elsewhere.
- struant 2y agoYou must have read a different article, because "starlink doesn't like it" is the only justification or explanation the article offers for their stance. And that is neither a valid justification nor an explanation.
- michaelt 2y agoOther people have mentioned the legal/sanctions reasons. But also, from a business point of view, maximum profit might mean offering a $100 a month service for residential users, a $1000 a month service for billionaires' yachts, a $5000 a month service for private jets, and a $100,000 a month service for defence industry applications. Charging more for use away from home, based on GPS data, could be very profitable. Especially as you need GPS tracking to beam the signals to the right place anyway.
- jvanderbot 2y agoI am fairly certain the backbone customer for starlink is or will be militaries, not necessarily private jets.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- grecy 2y ago> Why do they give a damn if people are subscribing in the US and using their product in Africa? A government gets to decide what their citizens can have. Think about it the other way around. Let's say there is a brand new vehicle for sale in China with no airbags, no abs, no emissions controls of any kind, etc. People in the US are absolutely NOT allowed to purchase that because the government of the US have decided it goes against the public interest (safety, pollution, etc.). Just because one country thinks people should be able to conceal carry handguns, that doesn't mean other countries have to allow it.
- struant 2y agoThen it is up to the local government to confiscate their starlink hardware. There is no reason for starlink to respect every single legal jurisdiction's rules. They only need to deal with wherever they connect to ISPs.
- grecy 2y agoYou and I both know that is not how laws are enforced by any country anywhere in the world.
- struant 2y agoWhat is an African country going to do about enforcing anything to do with starlink other than confiscate hardware within their borders? Whine to the UN that someone is competing with their local telecom?
- inemesitaffia 2y agoIran vs Norway in re starlink at the ITU
- grecy 2y agoWhy do you belittle African countries like that? Do Africans deserve less enforcement of things their government has not approved than people in other parts of the world? Would you be OK if some country started making high-current electrical devices that were not approved and then just forcefully sold them in your country, even though regulations prohibited it?