May 3, 2022 03:44 PM
https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/sta...tonga.html
EXCERPT: . . . The story of Tonga’s internet access feels like a bit of a pattern for Starlink: bold ambition but only modest success. On Sunday’s episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Meaghan Tobin, a reporter for the website Rest of World, about whether Starlink can ever fulfill its promise of connecting the world, especially places left behind by traditional internet. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
[...] In June 2021, Elon Musk said that Starlink would be a reimagining of the internet and would get to the parts of the world that are hard to reach. At the Mobile World Congress, he said they should have global connectivity everywhere except the by August 2021. At the time, how was that promise received?
People were really excited about it. This was seen as a revolution in connectivity—it was going to finally solve issues of internet access all over the world. And it also made his competitors really nervous. There was a big push to get more of these satellites launched and get more funding into this type of technology as fast as possible. But like a lot of things that Elon boasts about, it’s not quite as easily executed in practice.
Here we are not quite a year out from that speech. Where would you say the connectivity is now? Was that global promise delivered on?
As of now, it absolutely hasn’t been. Recent data from Cloudflare and also self-reported data to Reddit show that 98 percent of Starlink users are located in the West. They’re in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. There are some notable exceptions: Service was made available in Chile. But for the most part, users are overwhelmingly in Canada and the United States and Europe. And that’s not to say that there aren’t people in rural parts of these countries that really need internet access. Starlink is definitely solving a problem for those people. But in terms of delivering on the promise of connecting the entire globe, that’s absolutely not happening. That was one of the things that I was really interested in my reporting, to talk to people in India, who had been on the wait list and expected to receive Starlink technology this month.
You talked to one entrepreneur in India’s Assam state, who preordered Starlink, thinking it might revolutionize his business. He runs an adventure tourism startup and imagined that the satellite internet would allow him to attract digital nomads who could work from the area. He and his business partner also thought they could give their neighbors a boost.
They were expecting that they could use their Starlink terminal to provide connectivity for the area that they’re in. They didn’t just want it for their own business or their own customers. They also figured like, “Hey, kids in the neighborhood could come by and use the internet.”
But so far it hasn’t worked out. In India, regulators have yet to license Starlink. And in January the government ordered the company to refund anyone who had already paid for the service, which costs about $600 to set up and $110 per month. It’s also worth noting that India’s largest telecom company has a direct stake in OneWeb, one of Starlink’s competitors. But Starlink has faced delays in other places, too. The expected service date in South Africa was pushed from 2022 to 2023, with no explanation. And the company is also contending with the global semiconductor shortage.
In concept, it seems like Starlink, or SpaceX, is really the right company to execute on this internet-beamed-from-space idea. They have a great track record of getting objects into space. But it’s not actually as simple as that on the ground. There are a lot of challenges from governments and lobbyists and entrench interests and supply chains that are a lot harder to control.
I feel like we should note that Starlink has had one incredibly high-profile, good experience—in Ukraine. Can you tell that story?
Absolutely. Right after the Russians invaded Ukraine, the country’s minister of information technology [Mykhailo Federov] tweeted Elon, saying basically “Can you send in Starlink? Russia is here, and we’re worried about our internet communications.” And within days, there was a delivery of Starlink terminals to the country and Starlink service was running. I think it was within four days. So, on the surface, that really seems like an incredibly quick turnaround time, incredible success. And it really has been extremely helpful to a number of people and essential services in the country... (MORE - missing details, rest of interview)
EXCERPT: . . . The story of Tonga’s internet access feels like a bit of a pattern for Starlink: bold ambition but only modest success. On Sunday’s episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Meaghan Tobin, a reporter for the website Rest of World, about whether Starlink can ever fulfill its promise of connecting the world, especially places left behind by traditional internet. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
[...] In June 2021, Elon Musk said that Starlink would be a reimagining of the internet and would get to the parts of the world that are hard to reach. At the Mobile World Congress, he said they should have global connectivity everywhere except the by August 2021. At the time, how was that promise received?
People were really excited about it. This was seen as a revolution in connectivity—it was going to finally solve issues of internet access all over the world. And it also made his competitors really nervous. There was a big push to get more of these satellites launched and get more funding into this type of technology as fast as possible. But like a lot of things that Elon boasts about, it’s not quite as easily executed in practice.
Here we are not quite a year out from that speech. Where would you say the connectivity is now? Was that global promise delivered on?
As of now, it absolutely hasn’t been. Recent data from Cloudflare and also self-reported data to Reddit show that 98 percent of Starlink users are located in the West. They’re in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. There are some notable exceptions: Service was made available in Chile. But for the most part, users are overwhelmingly in Canada and the United States and Europe. And that’s not to say that there aren’t people in rural parts of these countries that really need internet access. Starlink is definitely solving a problem for those people. But in terms of delivering on the promise of connecting the entire globe, that’s absolutely not happening. That was one of the things that I was really interested in my reporting, to talk to people in India, who had been on the wait list and expected to receive Starlink technology this month.
You talked to one entrepreneur in India’s Assam state, who preordered Starlink, thinking it might revolutionize his business. He runs an adventure tourism startup and imagined that the satellite internet would allow him to attract digital nomads who could work from the area. He and his business partner also thought they could give their neighbors a boost.
They were expecting that they could use their Starlink terminal to provide connectivity for the area that they’re in. They didn’t just want it for their own business or their own customers. They also figured like, “Hey, kids in the neighborhood could come by and use the internet.”
But so far it hasn’t worked out. In India, regulators have yet to license Starlink. And in January the government ordered the company to refund anyone who had already paid for the service, which costs about $600 to set up and $110 per month. It’s also worth noting that India’s largest telecom company has a direct stake in OneWeb, one of Starlink’s competitors. But Starlink has faced delays in other places, too. The expected service date in South Africa was pushed from 2022 to 2023, with no explanation. And the company is also contending with the global semiconductor shortage.
In concept, it seems like Starlink, or SpaceX, is really the right company to execute on this internet-beamed-from-space idea. They have a great track record of getting objects into space. But it’s not actually as simple as that on the ground. There are a lot of challenges from governments and lobbyists and entrench interests and supply chains that are a lot harder to control.
I feel like we should note that Starlink has had one incredibly high-profile, good experience—in Ukraine. Can you tell that story?
Absolutely. Right after the Russians invaded Ukraine, the country’s minister of information technology [Mykhailo Federov] tweeted Elon, saying basically “Can you send in Starlink? Russia is here, and we’re worried about our internet communications.” And within days, there was a delivery of Starlink terminals to the country and Starlink service was running. I think it was within four days. So, on the surface, that really seems like an incredibly quick turnaround time, incredible success. And it really has been extremely helpful to a number of people and essential services in the country... (MORE - missing details, rest of interview)