It's not rolled out yet: http://sainthelenaisland.info/communications.htm#maestrotech...

> Due to delays in finalising designs for the new network, it is now accepted that it will not be completed by January 2024

If they haven't finalized the design, I'd say they've got a ways to go.

Is that for the cable or FTTP deployment on the island itself? Seems like they could at least get much better mobile internet rates using the subsea cable instead of satellite for backhaul.

I had a very difficult time trying to figure out if that subsea cable was online or not.

Per the ISP (Sure), it does appear to have been rolled out: https://www.sure.co.sh/assets/Banner-Links/PRESS-RELEASE-Con...

You still have to run the cable the last mile, even on an island.

Not necessarily, we have wireless technologies. Stringing cables along poles could well be cheaper, though.

I’m thinking with 4G, 5g, one day 6g and one day 7g, physical data infra’s days are numbered or will become a premium product at the residential level.

Except in Canada and elsewhere where the mobile and wireline providers are the same and deliberately keep mobile pricing high enough to disincentivize cord cutting.

None of those create more radio spectrum. I don't see a real replacement for wireline fiber and ethernet ever.

Each "g" let us modulate more data in the same channel size. Spectrum re-use via smaller cells is virtually limitless.

And we're re-allocating more spectrum for 2-way data regularly.

But if the cells keep getting smaller, at some point it will be cheaper to just bury that one fiber to beat out 12G plus the next 5 generations, rather than buy another cell to cover that one household.

Redundancy is also nice – given how remote Saint Helena is, I could imagine repairs taking quite some time.

Because the government seems highly regressive and is almost certainly controlling and monitoring the one cable they've allowed?

I’m curious where you get that impression. From their public communications, they seem to me like a pretty chill bunch. And from the size of the island, I’m not sure the advantage of snooping on the wires versus just gossiping around town. That’s assuming you could find and pay enough qualified staff to do the analysis, given that “anything to do with a computer” is on the “shortage occupation” list that automatically qualifies you for a work permit. [0]

Even in this hand-wavy announcement clutching their pearls at Starlink, they were careful to build in an extra few months for people to finish importing and hiding their Starlink terminals before they might start sending sternly-worded letters...

[0] https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Sh... (PDF)