How satellite ‘megaconstellations’ will photobomb astronomy images

Re:How satellite ‘megaconstellations’ will photobomb astrono... by jeroenhd on Thursday August 27, 2020 @05:56PM (#24299139)

India has banned most satellite telephones [1] (Inmarsat is still allowed apparently) and still catches people using them. There's a more complete list at [2].

Musk has already admitted that providing satellite services to countries like China can become a problem [3]. Countries that don't want StarLink and don't have the capabilities to take out LEO satellites might start to team up with China, Russia and other countries that do to protect their sovereignty.

Of course there's no way to prevent hardware that someone managed to sneak in from connecting to the satellites. Those devices will all need to come from the black market though, severely limiting the reach and future business StarLink might have in such a country.

[1]: http://www.gard.no/web/updates/content/26690148/ban-on-use-o...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_phone#Countries_with...

[3]: https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-internet-satellite-co...

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Re:How satellite ‘megaconstellations’ will photobomb astrono... by jessaustin on Thursday August 27, 2020 @06:40PM (#24299487)

Few nations, especially in Africa, have the sort of control over the sale of small electronics that is envisioned here. One would hope that the monopoly providers wouldn't invest many resources in policing areas they don't even serve... Musk probably isn't relying on any one particular nation to validate his business plan.

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