Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by gingernaut 3006 days ago
What the implications are for countries that severely restrict and monitor internet access? Would Chinese citizens be able to sign up for this service? Would SpaceX comply with foreign governments asking to ban connections or new customers from their countries?
2 comments
the-pigeon 3006 days ago
It would be subject to local wireless spectrum control.

So like for your example it would have to sell to Chinese customers illegally if it wasn't going to comply with their censorship regulations. Which the Chinese government could then do a lot to fight.

So basically no, satellite internet is unlikely to have any impact on censorship.

link
seiferteric 3006 days ago
Here's a wild idea... They could disable transmit in these areas, but allow reception. Someone in a hostile area with access to an antenna could send one way messages up with useful info.
link
hyperpallium 3006 days ago
Good idea, but just as easy to detect (send a message).
link
kakarot 3006 days ago
It's a pretty easy problem to solve: This is extraterrestrial wireless internet, and geography should have no bearing on your service. Don't require an address, just an account. Problem solved. Others will step in to resell bandwidth if SpaceX doesn't want to involve themselves with this political nightmare.
link
walrus01 3006 days ago
That's all well and good, i encourage you to move to addis abbaba, ethiopia (an example of a semi-autocratic state that does not allow ANY non-government-owned competition in international telecom links) and build a 2.4 meter c-band Tx/Rx earth station on top of your house. Count how many days elapse before men with guns come to dismantle it.
link
walrus01 3006 days ago
see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16712540

Unless the rooftop CPE can be significantly disguised, it'll be difficult for places like Iran. The Iranian government periodically goes on (not very successful) campaigns to get people to remove rooftop Ku-band TVRO, Rx only satellite dishes. Those don't transmit. With a portable spectrum analyzer it will not be difficult to identify starlink rooftop CPE radios.

This is ultimately the same problem that applies to rubber hose cryptanalysis. From a network engineering perspective, if an authoritarian state can use sufficient local resources to control the OSI layer 1, it doesn't matter how good your L2 to L7 are.

link