[throw6622]

This is not a good look for Kacific. Tonga already had a contract with them to implement satellite internet before the eruption. It seems like their ability to actually deploy their technology was so poor SpaceX can beat them starting from square 1. One of the many ways Starlink will disrupt the best laid plans.

[e4e78a06]

It looks like the contracted amount from Kacific was 1 Gbps and the previous fiber cable was offering 10 Gbps. It doesn't seem implausible that a single prioritized Starlink Premium terminal could deliver at least 1 Gbps and that would be very easy to fly in and setup.

Side note, it's really incredible that an entire island got by on 10 Gbps of bandwidth.

[selectodude]

It's only 100k people. I'm sure nobody is able to pull huge bandwidth but even if every man, woman, and child on the island was hammering away at it 24/7, that's 100kbit per person. Slow, but usable.

[darknavi]

Home-labbers in Tonga getting sweaty palms.

[dillondoyle]

I wonder if netflix could fly in one of their CDN boxes.

[gxt]

Would you have them eat cake too?

[rootsudo]

Not really, you assume that everyone in the world is the same as you. Much of the world is still using pre 4G technology and pipes with cell phones that have 512mb ram and possibly 32gb of memory (Total.)

Then you also have to realize what is the most consumption and usage - unlike most countries it is not streaming in general.