• andallthat@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Elon Musk Is Charging Starlink Customers Gigantic Bogus Fees Because Its Network Is Being Crushed by [Musk’s] “High Demand” for more money

    FTFY

    • Widdershins@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Elon Musk Is Charging Starlink Customers Gigantic Bogus Fees Because Its Network Is Being Crushed by [Musk’s] “High Demand” for more money ketamine

      FTFTFY

  • bfg9k@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Lol. Lmao, even.

    Skimping out on backbone capacity is definitely a Musk move 😂

  • amazingly101@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    Violence against billionaires and trillionaire is not the answer. It is the question. And the answer IS YES.

  • CombatWombat@feddit.online
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    7 days ago

    I hate everything about this. We’re ruining our astronomical observations and risking Kessler Syndrome so a trillionaire can price gouge rural internet subscribers because he wants to get the high score on net worth because he can’t get a high score on twitter likes (despite owning it) or any video game (despite having paid help). Who the hell told the United States that we have regulatory authority over our shared sky anyway?

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 days ago

      Starlink is extremely competitive for rural customers, due in no small part to the USA’s extreme reluctance to make telecoms with monopolies actually reach people.

      • CombatWombat@feddit.online
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        6 days ago

        I’m not sure I would characterize a $1500 access surcharge as “extremely competitive” but I agree we should run fiber to rural areas.

        • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 days ago

          If you’re referring to the dish purchase, they’re free these days. But even so, when your competitor is $200-500 upfront for a latent multi hop WISP topping out at 30 or 50mbps for $100 per month, a solid 300mbps for $130 and $1000 for a dish is cheap

          • CombatWombat@feddit.online
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            6 days ago

            No I mean the $1500 monthly demand surcharge that is the subject of the article you’re commenting under:

            SpaceX is now charging some users so-called “demand surcharges” of up to $1,500

    • CovfefeKills@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      They aren’t price gouging rural internet subscribers it’s the opposite they get half priced subscriptions for as long as they keep them. It is the people who try to sign up that already live in a congested area that get fuck off prices. You can sign up and get a rural deal and then move to a congested area with fuckoff pricing. That is what I did inadvertently.

  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 days ago

    Prior to and including IPO they have been on quite a marketing kick. Referral schemes, equipment rentals, discount plans for low usage etc. Seems like they’re trying hard to make the business make sense. I maintain that LEO (and WISP) ISPs should be limited to more extreme applications yet I see them all over the place in residential areas. Their technical achievements are impressive but if phone systems to remote areas were possible, then so should fibre optics.

    • adarza@piefed.ca
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      6 days ago

      they were, for months, literally giving the hardware away. no hardware cost. no recurring fees. just 20 bucks for shipping, then the whatever for the actual internet plan itself. a flat $80/mo i think the lowest cost one was. i have a few users on it that bought into that deal. i think it was just before the ipo where they started tacking-on an extra monthly fee.

    • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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      7 days ago

      Ma Bell had several decades to gain good ROI with POTS, while the rate of technology change today shrinks that outlook to just one to two decades. Plus the most profitable high income areas to be installing fiber now often have local laws requiring much more expensive underground installations so residents don’t have to see the ugly poles with wires hanging between them.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    The corporate version of privatize the profits, socialize the costs. Get in bed with billionaires and you’re an enemy of humanity.

  • Sineljora@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    If you use starlink, you deserve far worse. 5g is usually sufficient unless you’re out in the ocean or something. Either way it’s ruining the night sky, making launches more dangerous, destroying the ozone layer we tried so hard to repair, and supporting death and fascism.

      • Greyghoster@aussie.zone
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        7 days ago

        Fortunately in my area in Australia we have wireless broadband. There are small towers installed and operated by a local company that provide a good service. The whole lot of towers interconnect using microwave too so can span a large area. In any case, fibre isn’t coming to my place probably ever.

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      5G in rural America is terrible. I can’t make a phone call in my house, let alone get an internet connection. I’m not even in a particularly remote area.

      There are Starlink dishes everwhere you look here because it’s currently the only real option. It will probably be a while until they get some competition from Amazon.

        • adarza@piefed.ca
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          6 days ago

          there is 100s of miles of fiber spools just sitting for years at a utility maintenance yard here. the provider that was doing the work to expand services just took the rest of the free money and split.

        • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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          7 days ago

          The local ISP has been promising fiber for over a decade. They waited until Starlink took most of their customers before they started putting it in.

    • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      destroying the ozone layer

      This made me ask “wait, is that true” and apparently it is. Super, skin cancer for everyone. 🤦

      • The_Decryptor@aussie.zone
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        7 days ago

        And it’ll take ages to have an impact too.

        Furthermore, we find that these reentry byproducts may take up to 30 years to settle from the top of the mesosphere into the stratospheric ozone layer. Upon reaching an altitude of about 40 km, aluminum oxides catalyze chlorine activation which promotes ozone depletion.

        So the “reentry byproducts” from a satellite re-entering now, won’t start breaking down ozone until 2056, and by then there will be another 30 years’ worth of byproducts deposited in the upper atmosphere.

        And since it’s a catalyst, it won’t even be consumed in the process like CFCs are.

  • uuj8za@piefed.social
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    7 days ago

    I’ve been having occasional Internet issues over the last few years and was thinking about having a backup ISP.

    A lot of people in my town suggest Starlink… And well, I’d rather not have Internet at all!

    However, I did recently find these guys: https://www.computers4people.org/shield I’m gonna give these guys a shot.

    It’s probably not comparable, but no way in hell am I ever signing up for Starlink.

    • adarza@piefed.ca
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      6 days ago

      https://www.pcsforpeople.org/ is another organization with low-cost internet for low income households. they some have hardware, too. they’ve expanded a lot since their first location opened in minnesota in 1998. (note: i am not affiliated with them, i just occasionally refer people to them)

  • someguy3@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    So if you’re out on a farm, what’s the best option for Internet? Is 3g an option? (Either unlimited or a very large amount) Any line of sight service good?