| > When it takes the third-richest nation by GDP that long to replace technology, I am not going to demand better from nations that are a few dozen places below us on the economy rankings. It's odd that you talk about "demanding" nations to foot the bill for upgrades even though I talk about paying "Western" telcos to give it to them, install it, and teach them how to use and maintain it for free. You even quote this plan in your next paragraph. Smells like you have an axe to grind or something. > Yeah good luck with getting that past our populations that... Oh boy. Hun, the "expense" is gonna be less than a couple billion dollars, and it's not even going to be an appropriation. Unless some politician wants to use it to score points, literally noone in the public will notice. > But in countries where the iPhone models capable of that (or an outright Starlink terminal) can cost a full year's wages? Mmm, tell me what the BOM is for the satellite communications package on the phones that I'm talking about. I bet that not only do you have no clue, you're also largely unaware of the state of radio telecommunications in many of the nations in Africa. As a bonus inquiry, do tell me how many of the people who can't afford to buy the cheapest-available satellite phone are running scam/spam phone call operations in those countries. I bet that number is very close to zero. ;) Do remember that TFA that started all of this conversation discussed the FCC's plans to require government-issued ID in order to get access to the phone network. This is being presented as the "only way" to "solve" spam and scam calls, but even a moment's thought makes it plain that not only is it not the only way, [0] it will be completely unable to achieve the stated goal. [0] ...tax credits and their equivalents move businesses to solve every problem that can be solved, after all... |