Starlink Internet Courtesy of Tesla

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-teases-starlink-internet-service-debut/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=634&v=OThCuTqHuw8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation)

How will this compete with 5G? Opinions? Competitors? Will Tesla run out of backers for this?

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

On 7/9/2019 at 1:09 AM, ronwagn said:

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-teases-starlink-internet-service-debut/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=634&v=OThCuTqHuw8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation)

How will this compete with 5G? Opinions? Competitors? Will Tesla run out of backers for this?

It's performance will exceed land-based fiber optics in most cases, so how much market share it captures depends entirely on the cost. 

There are plenty of commercial customers who pay top dollar for ultra-fast internet connections.  These could be the first customers.  There are also remote, commercial customers who rely on slow, expensive satellite/microwave connections.  These might also be first customers.  Finally, there are military's around the world, who would love to have such a capability.

Then there are all the customers who already have cable/fiber delivered to their homes/businesses.  If the Starlink receiver costs $5000 and the service itself costs $100/mo, customers are unlikely to switch.  However, if you're a rancher out in Texas who currently pays $100/mo for a slow phone connection, you might invest in Starlink.  Maybe.  Or if you're a wealthy retiree puttering around your million-dollar home in Nowhere Wyoming, you might drop $5000 for Starlink. 

Of course, if the service is stellar at $50/mo and the receiver costs $100, it'll spread quickly.  I know US citizens would leap at the chance to free themselves of cable companies and carry their service with them wherever they go. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

I probably will stay put in the small city where I have ATT at acceptable speeds but when I travel to far flung areas of the United States or Canada or at sea, I still want good internet. I will always get the best I can reasonably afford. Sometimes that is not an option though. Some motels try to get by with crappy internet, and I am sure that actually hurts them in the long run. 

I would think that there would be a way for the Starlink or other similar receivers to share their signal with those nearby also. 

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

2 hours ago, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

I know US citizens would leap at the chance to free themselves of cable companies

American cable companies are the total pits.  How and entire industry can degenerate into lousy service, arrogant salesmen, insolent customer "service" people, and useless, worthless management - totally infatuated with how great they are - is just baffling.  It is an industry defined by mendacity and mediocrity. I remain astonished that the government regulators have not put the entire bunch out of business.  they richly deserve burial. 

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

11 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

American cable companies are the total pits.  How and entire industry can degenerate into lousy service, arrogant salesmen, insolent customer "service" people, and useless, worthless management - totally infatuated with how great they are - is just baffling.  It is an industry defined by mendacity and mediocrity. I remain astonished that the government regulators have not put the entire bunch out of business.  they richly deserve burial.  

Government is the root cause:
1)  Installing communication lines requires a lot of local government cooperation.  Plenty of dickery there.
2)  Cable companies convinced the states to make it illegal for municipalities to create their own internet service, thus limiting competition.
3)  Probably other things, but I haven't looked into the details.

I recall reading a comment somewhere from a Polish guy who said Poland had solved this problem.  It was easy: they deregulated most of it.  The second one company screwed with customers, a new company popped up to take its place.  ISPs lived in mortal fear of losing their shirts, and for that reason, didn't dare play games.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 hour ago, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

I recall reading a comment somewhere from a Polish guy who said Poland had solved this problem.  It was easy: they deregulated most of it.  The second one company screwed with customers, a new company popped up to take its place.  ISPs lived in mortal fear of losing their shirts, and for that reason, didn't dare play games.

YOu will appreciate that that only works when the fiber-optic cable itself is considered an "open highway," and anybody can travel on that highway.  The way the cartels operate is to control the trunk cables.  Let me illustrate. 

Locally, there was this company called "Sovernet," something like that.  It, together with a ton of other local cable companies, got bought out by FirstLight, owned by some fat hedge fund and then re-sold to yet another fat hedge fund in Luxembourg  (hedge funds love Luxembourg for its bank secrecy and minimal taxes.  You never get any information about those outfits as they bury themselves behind opaque walls of secrecy in Luxembourg).  Now the State wants to be in conformity with the federal ban on stuff from Huawei, that Chinese outfit that is embroiled in all manner of conflict with the feds.  Trump has decreed that Huawei plants spyware and malware inside their hardware, and so cannot be used in US networks if you want or receive Federal money.  As the State gets Fed cash for everything from the 911 system to hospitals for old folks, the state Ordered that all service providers remove any Huawei equipment.  

So FirstLight, the cartel,  assures the State Regulators that there is no Huawei stuff inside their sprawling networks,  That was a flat-out lie.  All these little cable companies that FirstLight swallowed up had Huawei stuff in there.  So a reporter gets access into a switching room and there is this Huawei stuff with the little green lights blinking on and off, indicating data packets running through the system.  He takes a picture, and it gets published  (and widely discussed).   

FirstLight immediately pulls their advertising contract from the newspaper, threatens to sue the newspaper  (for "unauthorised" entry into the switch room and for taking the picture of "confidential" stuff, what a joke that is),and then tells the co-user Vtel that it will be disconnected from the "dark fiber" cable line running from Lebanon, New Hampshire to Boston, Massachusetts, which dark fiber was "lit" by Vtel on their own nickel.  Once the lit fiber cable goes dark again, then customers of Vtel in Vermont and upstate New York State will be unable to "dial out" as the interconnect is in Boston. The total bitch that dreamed this retaliation up is some woman who has been their in-house "legal counsel" for twenty years.  Can you imagine the torture of being married to that bitch?  Unreal. 

I posted a Letter to the Editor suggesting that the operations of FirstLight in this State should be taken by eminent domain, a State take-over of the assets, and FirstLight registration with the Secretary of State be cancelled.  Well, the next day the FirstLight people were in my LinkedIn page spying on me.  Those cable guys don't do criticism. 

So this has to be society's robust response:  you want to be some abusive cartel, your company gets shut down and the assets seized. Solves that problem. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Jan van Eck
"trunk cables" for "truck cables"

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

9 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

YOu will appreciate that that only works when the fiber-optic cable itself is considered an "open highway," and anybody can travel on that highway.  The way the cartels operate is to control the trunk cables.  Let me illustrate. 

Locally, there was this company called "Sovernet," something like that.  It, together with a ton of other local cable companies, got bought out by FirstLight, owned by some fat hedge fund and then re-sold to yet another fat hedge fund in Luxembourg  (hedge funds love Luxembourg for its bank secrecy and minimal taxes.  You never get any information about those outfits as they bury themselves behind opaque walls of secrecy in Luxembourg).  Now the State wants to be in conformity with the federal ban on stuff from Huawei, that Chinese outfit that is embroiled in all manner of conflict with the feds.  Trump has decreed that Huawei plants spyware and malware inside their hardware, and so cannot be used in US networks if you want or receive Federal money.  As the State gets Fed cash for everything from the 911 system to hospitals for old folks, the state Ordered that all service providers remove any Huawei equipment.   

So FirstLight, the cartel,  assures the State Regulators that there is no Huawei stuff inside their sprawling networks,  That was a flat-out lie.  All these little cable companies that FirstLight swallowed up had Huawei stuff in there.  So a reporter gets access into a switching room and there is this Huawei stuff with the little green lights blinking on and off, indicating data packets running through the system.  He takes a picture, and it gets published  (and widely discussed).   

FirstLight immediately pulls their advertising contract from the newspaper, threatens to sue the newspaper  (for "unauthorised" entry into the switch room and for taking the picture of "confidential" stuff, what a joke that is),and then tells the co-user Vtel that it will be disconnected from the "dark fiber" cable line running from Lebanon, New Hampshire to Boston, Massachusetts, which dark fiber was "lit" by Vtel on their own nickel.  Once the lit fiber cable goes dark again, then customers of Vtel in Vermont and upstate New York State will be unable to "dial out" as the interconnect is in Boston. The total bitch that dreamed this retaliation up is some woman who has been their in-house "legal counsel" for twenty years.  Can you imagine the torture of being married to that bitch?  Unreal.  

I did not know that. Thank you.

10 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

I posted a Letter to the Editor suggesting that the operations of FirstLight in this State should be taken by eminent domain, a State take-over of the assets, and FirstLight registration with the Secretary of State be cancelled.  Well, the next day the FirstLight people were in my LinkedIn page spying on me.  Those cable guys don't do criticism.  

So this has to be society's robust response:  you want to be some abusive cartel, your company gets shut down and the assets seized. Solves that problem.  

I agree. 

Makes me wonder if we should revive an old Viking tradition: seeking death in battle.  The vikings believed the only way into heaven was to die honorably in battle.  As a result, old warriors would seek worthy foes until they met their end.  I'd bet the sociopathic assholes in charge would think twice if there were a few million old men looking for any excuse to pick a fight. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 minute ago, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

I'd bet the sociopathic assholes in charge would think twice if there were a few million old men looking for any excuse to pick a fight. 

Well, that is how things ended for the sociopaths in Italy and Romania.  In Italy, you have that guy Mussolini, who strutted around in his arrogance until he finally irritated just enough people that they seized him, shot him, and then hung his corpse by his feet from a gallows in the city square - along with his dead mistress, also hung up-side down by her feet. Not quite sure what her crime was, but apparently doing coitus with Il Duce was considered good enough to get you shot. Or hung.  Or both.  Whatever. 

Over in Romania, you had Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, the "he and she" pair of exploitative, abusive dictators, and that abuse went on until about 1987 or 1989, somewhere in there, until finally the people had had enough.  So some General arrested them, held a classic "show trial", and marched the pair out to a stone wall inside the military barracks where the firing squad did its thing.  After being shot, the bodies were displayed for the angry public, I think they also were hung up, probably by a rope around the neck, whatever. 

Being an abusive jerk is great until finally someone is irritated enough to go after you.  Take that jerk Jeffrey  Epstein, the billionaire hedge fund manager who does sex abuse and sex rape of girls.  He shows up at Newark Airport in his private personal Boeing 747, flying in from Europe, and is arrested at the airport and tossed into jail.  Now, there is a passenger downgrade if there ever was one!  Bye-bye personal Boeing 747.  It's history now.  What an a$$h---. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 7/13/2019 at 7:59 PM, Jan van Eck said:

American cable companies are the total pits.  How and entire industry can degenerate into lousy service, arrogant salesmen, insolent customer "service" people, and useless, worthless management - totally infatuated with how great they are - is just baffling.  It is an industry defined by mendacity and mediocrity. I remain astonished that the government regulators have not put the entire bunch out of business.  they richly deserve burial. 

They probably make a lot of major political contributions to select people. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 7/14/2019 at 9:47 AM, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

I did not know that. Thank you.

I agree. 

Makes me wonder if we should revive an old Viking tradition: seeking death in battle.  The vikings believed the only way into heaven was to die honorably in battle.  As a result, old warriors would seek worthy foes until they met their end.  I'd bet the sociopathic assholes in charge would think twice if there were a few million old men looking for any excuse to pick a fight. 

I think a lot of old men have had the thought of ending their life in opposing evildoers. 

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

13 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I think a lot of old men have had the thought of ending their life in opposing evildoers. 

So... what's stopping them? 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

6 hours ago, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

So... what's stopping them? 

I don't know. Maybe they don't want to incur the wrath of God who says "Vengeance is mine". https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/32-35.htm

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

16 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I don't know. Maybe they don't want to incur the wrath of God who says "Vengeance is mine". https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/32-35.htm

Well, with the rise of atheism and agnosticism, there will be less of that in the future. 

Then again, the atheists and agnostics may not care enough about the children they don't have to protect the future they've no stake in.  Oh well.