• captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Satellite is better for remote people. I know a woman whose Alaskan village (indigenous, not colonizer) got significantly better internet once starlink was rolled out.

    Now you could say that nations with meaningful duties to remote peoples should band together and essentially jointly operate (maybe having the UN administer it) such a service for them and use it as the last resort akin to sat phones. And I’d be cool with that. But I so think such people should have internet, and this is probably cheaper than running and maintaining cables all across Alaska and northern Canada.

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      Oh shut up with the colonizer bs. So its OK for the indigenous to use a Nazis system because burns hits them.

    • absentbird@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      That’s true, but it’s largely due to a market that doesn’t prioritize remote clients and a regulatory system which has roped off huge parts of the radio spectrum.

      Instead of a starlink receiver talking to low orbit, you could have a dish that uses fixed wireless access or point to point connections to access a terrestrial tower. In exceptional situations geostationary satellites make sense, but these low earth constellations are getting out of control.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Give them internet via a geo stationary satellite.

      You only need a few in a space where there is a lot of room, and it won’t bug anyone, contrary to the shit show we have with the countless starlink satellites visibly zipping over while working hard to make the Kessler Syndrome a thing.

      I’m not even talking about the pollution caused by those rocket launches

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Give them internet via a geo stationary satellite.

        We have that already. Its comparatively very expensive, and also very very high latency simply because for the speed-of-light. The satellite at GEO sits at 20k kilometers. That by itself introduces 250ms of latency each way. So a 500ms latency is not uncommon for GEO satellite internet. Also, GEO satellites are very expensive because of how much energy (deltaV) it takes to get the satellite out that far and for how long they have to operate to make that money back.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      But it’s not better. It’s just rhe only option. They would very much prefer to be connected with a cable or a cell tower no? Why wouldnt they?

      • Einskjaldi@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        You have permafrost melting so northern tundra areas will be worse to build on going forward. But the context is tiny rural places that don’t have roads and you travel by plane or snowmobile, they’re not getting cable.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          7 days ago

          Could do point to point wireless. And only have towers every so often. The land is cwey flat.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          How many people is that? Maybe a million in the entire world? Less? I dont think internet is on their mind that much tbh

            • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              It’s significantly cheaper still. Cable is dirt cheap, technology of laying cable is mature and we already have roads developed to piggy back off infra off. Now think about satellites that only live a few years and are incredibly expensive and immature.