It’s not a scam. Satellite internet was extremely expensive and slow last time I checked a few years before starlink. Yeah , musk is garbage but starlink is actually helping a lot of people worldwide.
The money would have come from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (RDOF), but the FCC writes that Starlink wasn’t able to “demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service” and that giving the subsidy to it wouldn’t be “the best use of limited Universal Service Fund dollars.”
The FCC decision sounds like a good thing in this case, also because Starlink isn’t being managed responsibly
The technology itself is cool, and I hope some other companies can build off that work to meet that need. There are a lot of existing companies that take advantage of those living in rural areas, many of which don’t have other options or much disposable income
ITAR…go look it up. And the UA still uses it for good and so does everyone there, they just cannot use it as a direct weapon. Get off the musk hate dick… it’s clouding you and apparently a bunch of people’s judgement.
It’s probably the most wasteful way of providing internet imaginable since they have to send satellites up by the dozen every year for them to burn in the atmosphere only several years lates. Yeah I don’t think it’s a good business model at all, especially considering they haven’t been able to turn a profit and rely on subsidies.
Yet many towns where I live saw broadband, yes, broadband, not fiber, for the first time in their life thanks to Starlink. It’s easy to talk when coming from a place of privilege.
Oh no! It’s expensive! Wait. Isn’t he the chairman of a vertically integrated space shuttle and satellite international conglomerate? Why are Americans footing the bill for any of this?
it absolutely is a scam… you WANT it to not be a scam, but you are incorrect…
I think it’s the other way around…you WANT everything he touches to be a scam.
I don’t like the guy either, but Starlink is a real, actual product that tons of people are using just fine right now. Also, his rockets are allowing the US to continue to send personnel to the space station without relying on Russia. That is not a scam either.
Why would I want it to not be a scam ? I don’t even use it. Years ago, I heard about internet satellite and got curious, so I searched a bit about it and found out it was really expensive. I don’t remember exactly but it was more or less in the 100s of dollars monthly for an abysmal speed like " up to 8mb" or something.
If anyone used internet satellite a few years before starlink was launched please correct me if I am wrong.
How about that CGI car in orbit in front of a swim screen? There are still a lot of people who haven’t figured that one out yet.
What it accomplished is manifold, but mainly to get investors to pony up, and creditors to extend credit, and the fan boys to fan the flames.
CC: @misk@sopuli.xyz