[kortilla]

Government just calls ISPs and tells them to shut stuff down or face charges.

> there is some government entity able to turn off a satellite, but that probably only applies to a few countries in the world

A satellite internet provider can’t provide service to a country without the complying with its government rules (assuming there is any kind of trade relationship between the country and the country of the satellite internet provider).

[lotsofpulp]

> assuming there is any kind of trade relationship between the country and the country of the satellite internet provider

Assuming the other country has something worth trading for. I imagine Uganda wouldn’t really have anything to bargain with the US if a US satellite internet company rejected Uganda’s request.

[xxpor]

https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/africa/east-africa/uganda

In case anyone else is interested in the actual data for that.

[bluGill]

Problem is why would a satellite internet provider provide service? Money is the obvious answer, but how will customers get money to them?

I could just see them continuing to provide service at no cost as a gesture of goodwill (particularly if their satellite covers another country), but only so long as limited customers use it that way. They won't be doing upgrades though. And it isn't hard to figure out who is getting internet in this way and physically confiscate their equipment.

[rhino369]

Worst case, Uganda could just jam the satellites.

[stretchcat]

From what I understand, the US military is a major customer of commercial communication satellites. Jamming those satellites could be a very bad idea, regardless of who you were intending to inconvenience.

[toast0]

Especially in a country with less infrastructure, there's usually only a small number of mobile carriers that service the vast majority of the internet use; sometimes the government only calls the mobile carriers, and ignores the wired carriers and dialup ISPs.