News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by runarberg on Monday April 03, 2023 @12:09PM (#35426301)
The scenarios you’re describing don’t need fast and low latency connection. Banking and government function can easily be done using traditional satellite, 4G or even dial up modem.

As for remote work, I have to question the decisions of someone that moves to an area without connection to the electricity grid and expects to do remote work from there. IMHO they are putting them self into an extreme scenario which shouldn’t be accommodated for, neither by government nor private enterprise.

You may bring up rural communities that have been neglected for decades as a counterpoint here. To that, I go to ancestor post and state, that those communities deserve traditional infrastructure, paid for from our common funds, not to be forced into a magic solution from a startup looking to make money from them.

Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by crispinb on Monday April 03, 2023 @06:13PM (#35432042)
4g has very patchy coverage in rural Australia away from main roads. Satellite can be an OK option for some (we have a gov-subsidised option), but is unreliable and subject to lengthy outages and low monthly data caps. There are many other reasons to need decent connectivity - schooling and healthcare among them.

> I have to question the decisions of someone that moves to an area without connection to the electricity grid and expects to do remote work from there.

That's just silly, closed-minded, and ignorant. You must just have very limited experience of the world. I can off the top of my head list hundreds of scenarios where remote work might become the only option for someone already living in the bush. And many other reasons (which I know first hand from people living here) why people may be entirely unable to move from here. These are real facts on the ground, and not subject to your lack of imagination and propensity towards narrow-minded curtain-twitching judgements about whole classes of people you know zip about.

Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by runarberg on Monday April 03, 2023 @06:53PM (#35432492)
I’m gonna ignore your personal insult and answer the actual claims in your post.

> 4g has very patchy coverage in rural Australia

This goes back to the claim in the original post. Starlink is an excuse not to rollout proper infrastructure.

> schooling and healthcare

Really? Are there honestly scenarios in the real world where people don’t have power but need to do school and healthcare via the internet. I find that hard to believe. Honestly if there exist rural communities where this is a concern than they deserve infrastructure, which goes back to the original post which claims:

> All these talks about Starlink -> Remember it's a bandaid solution to your governments poor planning and infrastructure rollout of a core utility / service.

> I can off the top of my head list hundreds of scenarios where remote work might become the only option for someone already living in the bush.

Do you mind listing some of them? It might be because of my lack of imagination, but I have a hard time seeing someone living in the bush, unable to relocate, suddenly finding a job that requires the need for high speed and low latency connection.

Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by crispinb on Monday April 03, 2023 @07:35PM (#35432954)
* * *