this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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A $2.14-billion federal loan for an Ottawa-based satellite operator has Canadian politicians arguing about whether American billionaire Elon Musk poses a national security risk.

The fight involves internet connectivity in remote regions as Canada tries to live up to its promise to connect every Canadian household to high-speed internet by 2030.

A week ago, the Liberal government announced the loan to Telesat, which is launching a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will be able to connect the most remote areas of the country to broadband internet.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett objected to the price tag, asking Musk in a social media post how much it would cost to provide his Starlink to every Canadian household that does not have high-speed access.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (3 children)

LEO internet is not sustainable and should be banned.

If you want satellite internet geosync is way better. The only downside is latency but it's not worth destroying the planet and ruining astronomy globally over.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This. I was about to write the same.

Fuck Starlink and their absurd amount of satellites. Why are things that are bad on paper still out into practice and then get people to talk about it as if its the next best thing after sliced bread? 5 Geo orbit satellites do the same and more than an entire fleet of star link satellites that would ruin Astronomy forever, not to mention the pollution, high cost, and now having these stupid dots fly visibly through the sky at night. These satellites will fall out of the sky within a decade due to their low orbit so continously require more launches to resupply them, adding pollution over pollution. None of this is even mentioning the risk for a full scale Kessler syndrome with this trash.

Fully agree, Starlink (and others like it) should be forbidden

[–] Maggoty 8 points 2 months ago

Don't worry next we're going to solve the non-existent problem of metal scarcity by dragging the ocean floor. Even though it will obliterate entire ecosystems built around the nodules we're going to mine. All so a billionaire can become a multi billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Elliptical orbits are perfect for polar regions, both Leo and geo are inevitability going to suffer more than a well covered elliptical

[–] SupraMario 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Destroying the planet? And geosync doesn't work period. What could have been done is the money that was given to the telecoms actually be used to run fiber to everyone that they promised...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You can’t reach everywhere with fibre. Some areas of the far north are too remote and too sparsely populated for it to ever make sense to put in fibre, and it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

This deal provides critical infrastructure to those places while not binding us to the whims of an egotistical fascist asshole.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

This is where I am. If he just stepped back and followed the laws for whichever region he was providing service in, I wouldn't have a problem with it being provided by an egotistic asshole. But he has done other than that a number of times, and that's a problem. All this ignores the national security issues, which people should have gotten a refresher on during COVID with the N95 mask issues.

Sometimes the more expensive option just makes sense if national security is a factor.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can’t reach everywhere with fibre. Some areas of the far north are too remote and too sparsely populated for it to ever make sense to put in fibre, and it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Norway saunters into the chat, shakes its head over this ignorant drivel, and walks back out while tapping it’s temple with a forefinger

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Norway has a population of around 5 million in an area the size of 385 thousand sq km. As of the 2021 census, the territories have a combined population of around 117 thousand people in an area just under 3.6 million sq km.

The difference of scale there is massive. Kudos to Norway if they’ve done a good job extending their fibre networks, but I sincerely doubt we’ll be able to achieve anywhere near the same level of penetration in the most environmentally harsh and most rural areas of our country with just fibre technologies.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Norway has one of the most aggressively traversing-hostile geographies on the planet. It has 1,200 fjords compared to about 240 for Canada. Plus, their mountains are far steeper and more impassable, and the fjords are deeper.

If Norway can run dedicated fibre optic to every hamlet over 500 people there, Canada can run fibre optic to any hamlet anywhere in our country for half the price.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Half the price of per kilometer
But many many more kilometers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Have you seen the North it’s hostile and very big. Not to mention the muskeg.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure you're conflating the American situation with the Canadian one. America gave various telecoms about $4 billion to expand their networks, with which they did nothing. Canada did other stupid things, such as put a program in place to increase rural broadband in 2019, which is really late to the game, or, in Manitoba, where I live, just give a fiber network laid by a government-owned utility to a local ISP.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Research Xplore-net and circle back to this. The feds poured all kinds of subsidies into this shitty company and it's never been more than a joke among anyone who's ever had to use it. ETA look up hundreds (and thousands that didn't post to the internet) cases like this one where Xplore-net users bailed en masse for Starlink as soon as possible and got fucked around for months with their cancellation and billing workflows.

I can't find it but I'm reasonably sure I remember Xplore-net asking for a bailout or subsidy funding due to their customers fleeing around lockdowns. I'll post it if I can find it.

ETA #2 lol Canadian Broadband Firm Xplore In Talks to Receive Fresh Financing

[–] SupraMario 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Naa we gave nearly a trillion to the telcoms. The point stands that while musk is a piece of shit, he did something that govs and other private companies didn't.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Because for some reason America likes private companies doing everything now. They are so dependent on Musk one single citizen it’s ridiculous, and a national security threat.

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago

We've been in that loop for a while. The problem is our gov isn't exactly great at providing shit for the citizens because it's filled with the same people who run the private industries. Which in turn just makes people less trusting of our gov. It's a shit cycle

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Geosync has been working for decades. Try again.

[–] SupraMario 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Geosync does not work for anything other than we browsing were latency doesn't matter. You can't use it to work from home and its not technically broadband...so try again.

[–] Maggoty 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nobody claimed it's broadband. And nobody claimed they need broadband up there. Nobody is trying to remote into their tech job from the Arctic Circle.

Take your straw men home.

[–] SupraMario 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

The fuck are you talking about...rural Canada is not the fucking artic circle...jesus you're dense, do you think people who live there don't deserve proper Internet? Do you think people who live there can't be tech workers or people who would remote into a job?

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Remote tech workers aren't living in a place without broadband, and I seriously doubt they're moving to villages so remote they get supply planes, as weather allows. And yes the area includes the Arctic Circle. Remote workers are living in a medium sized town with a fiber backbone connection because their job already depends on it. They aren't pining away at Cambridge Bay wishing someone would give them broadband internet.

Large areas of the world are fine without broadband internet. Especially when the method of delivery is to smother LEO with disposable satellites. Trying to extend the western standard of living to every corner of the world instead of ameliorating the standard is a major driver of climate change. Some things just don't work in remote areas.

[–] SupraMario 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'll repaste the same here since you and another basically said the same thing "fuck poor people and rural people and minorities" right?

Lol what a joke, so you're saying people in rural areas don't deserve Internet lol fuck those kids who want to learn, and fuck those people who live out there and don't have the means to live in an expensive city, they should enjoy their shitty connections or no connections at all.

You're hilarious

[–] Maggoty -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Geosync Satellite Internet works fine for learning, they still have school and libraries. Geosync has worked for decades, so the question isn't should we screw them over. It's should we upgrade, given the price?

There's plenty of other ways to bring services to these very remote areas and raise their standard of living. Just because one thing is held back does not mean nobody cares about them. It means we're being responsible with our resources and environment.

And it's especially important to question these things whenever people start talking about, "for the kids!"

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Geosync Satellite Internet works fine for learning, they still have school and libraries. Geosync has worked for decades, so the question isn't should we screw them over. It's should we upgrade, given the price?

No it does not, you cannot do any sort of voip learning with it.

There's plenty of other ways to bring services to these very remote areas and raise their standard of living. Just because one thing is held back does not mean nobody cares about them. It means we're being responsible with our resources and environment.

Yea they tried that and it failed...

And it's especially important to question these things whenever people start talking about, "for the kids!"

I'm not even going there with you.

[–] Maggoty 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry. I didn't realize learning online was restricted to VOIP. That's usually solved by just making teachers available there.

But I am going there with you because you started with remote workers and went to "but the kids!" When you realized you were wrong.

[–] SupraMario 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The majority of interactions online that matter (e.g. jobs/schools/training/certs) require low latency. Stop fucking acting like they don't.

I pointed all of this out in one large lump, and you ran with "the kids". Which is ironic coming from you, who pulls the "the kids" when it's about gun legislation...

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The problem is I've done online classes and you're just full of shit.

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago

Uhh...ok? Have you attempted to do them on geosync satellites with latency in the 2k range? Have you attempted a certification where someone monitors you? All of this does not work with high latency....the fuck are you a sales person for huesnet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cambridge bay might be a bad example the research facility is there so imagine that has high speed internet.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago

You'd be surprised. Sometimes it's better to just clone and send the hard drive. There's always the old half joke about the bandwidth of a station wagon moving a bunch of drives down the interstate.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ehrm, no to both questions? You live in rural fucking Canada. Connectivity will be shit, that's a given. If you choose a job that relies on that, you should move to where you can actually work.

Fast internet is a privilege, not something people "deserve". Fucking up LEO so people can stream or Netflix or whatever is absolutely not worth it, and imo the practice should be banned. Starlink has been disastrous for astronomy already. Put fiber in if it's so important, expensive but hey, people "deserve" it right?

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lol what a joke, so you're saying people in rural areas don't deserve Internet lol fuck those kids who want to learn, and fuck those people who live out there and don't have the means to live in an expensive city lol

You're hilarious

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not living in an expensive city doesn't equate to living in extremely remote areas. If you choose to live in an area with very few services, then don't expect the rest of the world to bend over backwards to provide those for you at their expense. The sheer entitlement is hilarious.

Besides, there's still internet, just not fast broadband.

[–] SupraMario -1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's hilarious, so you think people in developing countries should just get fucked as well then?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most developing countries have pretty decent internet access already. Maybe not in the more remote areas, but again, access to the internet is not a requirement to live. Internet has barely existed for 30 years, I don't think screwing up LEO in an attempt to bring faster internet to people who didn't have it anyway is remotely reasonable.

[–] SupraMario 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You do realize that a massive portion of the world lives in what ISPs consider rural, and refuse to provide the Internet. If this wasn't an issue, then starlink would have never taken off.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You realise that this has held true for literally everywhere, and that it's only a matter of time until they're connected too? Between 2017 and 2023 an additional 20% of the world received internet access, a trend that doesn't appear to be slowing down just yet. By 2030 approximately 80% of the world will have internet access, and somewhere between 2040-2050 we'll consider the entire world to be connected.

I still see absolutely no reason to screw LEO and fill it with sattelites, just so that someone in bumfuck nowhere can Netflix or something. Internet access may be important for a western lifestyle, but the 90s barely anyone had internet and they lived perfectly fine without it. Even before Starlink sattelite internet existed (and still does), it's just slower.

[–] SupraMario 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Very little of that is because of ground lines. Starlink services damn near the globe now.

The level of bullshit I'm seeing from you people who seem to only hate starlink because that shit stain musk has his name attached to it, is insane. Internet access for a long time has been pushed as a priority and should be treated as a utility and that everyone should have access to it. Yet here I am defending access and you lot are on a triad of "fuck those people who live in rural areas". You know that some of us are 10miles from town and considered rural? And the big Telecoms refuse to run broadband for us? Rural WISPs are a thing for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Starlink doesn't cover the globe, it's available in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. It's not available in most of Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Russia, Indochina. E.g. the majority of the world cannot access Starlink.

I don't give a shit that Starlink is owned by Musk. Starlink as a company seems fine (it's not X or anything), but I strongly dislike that their product messes with astronomy in such a major way that astronomists complain about it every chance they get.

You know that some of us are 10miles from town and considered rural? And the big Telecoms refuse to run broadband for us?

Sounds like your fight is with "big telecom" and with your local government for not putting up a good enough quote to run fiber. This isn't an issue for large portions of the world, including rural areas, where they've figured out how to get them to lay fiber.

Internet access for a long time has been pushed as a priority and should be treated as a utility and that everyone should have access to it.

Access is not the same as high-speed access. Almost all of the world has some level of access, even in rural areas, through sattelites that are not in LEO. Enough to (slowly) browse, not enough to stream in HD. I don't believe sacrificing considerable astronomical discoveries and progress is remotely worth it when feasible alternatives are available and have been used in large areas of the world already.

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Starlink doesn't cover the globe, it's available in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. It's not available in most of Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Russia, Indochina. E.g. the majority of the world cannot access Starlink.

https://www.starlink.com/map

China/russia/middle east not allowing it, is not the same as not being available. Did you even check the coverage map before replying.

I don't give a shit that Starlink is owned by Musk. Starlink as a company seems fine (it's not X or anything), but I strongly dislike that their product messes with astronomy in such a major way that astronomists complain about it every chance they get.

Astronomers complain about light bleed from ground cities as well. No one was telling them to shut down the cities.

Sounds like your fight is with "big telecom" and with your local government for not putting up a good enough quote to run fiber. This isn't an issue for large portions of the world, including rural areas, where they've figured out how to get them to lay fiber.

Lol no just no... I dont know where you live but the majority of people in rural areas are not served, otherwise starlink would have never taken off and been sustainable. You think businesses just make products for a few people and break even?

Access is not the same as high-speed access. Almost all of the world has some level of access, even in rural areas, through sattelites that are not in LEO. Enough to (slowly) browse, not enough to stream in HD. I don't believe sacrificing considerable astronomical discoveries and progress is remotely worth it when feasible alternatives are available and have been used in large areas of the world already.

Again this myth you keep spouting that the majority of the world has access is bullshit, and the idea that you're basically telling people, well planes exist but you need to walk because you live to far from the airport is some classist bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

China/russia/middle east not allowing it, is not the same as not being available. Did you even check the coverage map before replying.

So can you use it or is it not available then? And yes, I checked that map, where else do you think I got the list from??

Astronomers complain about light bleed from ground cities as well. No one was telling them to shut down the cities.

People claim we should turn down city lights all the time! Under what rock have you been living? But for city light bleed, astronomers have an alternative solution, simply place the telescope somewhere not near the cities. And yes, whenever a city tends to grow near one of those telescopes astronomers do kick up a fuss about it.

If you fill LEO with thousands of sattelites, there's nothing astronomers can do about that.

Lol no just no... I dont know where you live but the majority of people in rural areas are not served, otherwise starlink would have never taken off and been sustainable.

I don't know where you live, Mars perhaps?

https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:InternetPenetrationWorldMap.svg

Clearly shows most of the Earth has internet access. Or do you think the US has no rural areas? They're still above 90% somehow. Oh wait, I know, they must be using those mythical internet-via-sattelite services that existed well before Starlink did! I wonder where you'd find a mythical creature like the Viasat-1 for example.

Starlink took off because they promise higher speeds than some ISPs and most other sattelite companies do at lower cost, not because they're your only option. Starlink has 3 million customers, which makes them the size of a small ISP.

Again this myth you keep spouting that the majority of the world has access is bullshit

Except for the fact that the data backs me up.

planes exist but you need to walk because you live to far from the airport is some classist bullshit.

Continuing your analogy, you propose demolishing the local university because people are entitled to fly to Ibiza, or their local supermarket. Or something, it's not like it made much sense anyway.

You still completely failed to address the main point, that universal high-speed internet access is not critical for most of the world, certainly not for areas that have always managed perfectly fine without, and that filling up LEO is a disaster for astronomists that they don't have a workaround for. If you're not going to actually argue that point I think we're done here.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Where the fuck did anyone say that? Is this the next level? After the kids?

Go look at pictures of Nairobi and tell me seriously you think they don't have broadband Internet.

[–] SupraMario 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You...you did, you're entire argument hinges on "fuck those people, they shouldn't live outside a city"...

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No it's they shouldn't expect the same services as even small towns. These are thousand person affairs on or above the Arctic Circle.

[–] SupraMario 1 points 2 months ago

Dude, people in small towns are having to use starlink. The fuck are you talking about....my fucking god I cannot believe I'm arguing with someone who thinks basic services shouldn't be provided for their citizens.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 2 months ago

He's switched from remote workers to kids. He's just trying to gin up outrage now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes. Burning debris in the upper atmosphere has unknown effets on the environment, plus the exploitation of rare earth metal that cannot be recycled and the energy expenditure. Musk want to burn more satellites per year than what we ever launched prior to this, and every other greedy company wants to follow suit with their own junk.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

Burning debris in the upper atmosphere has unknown effets on the environment,

Man, just wait until you find out about naturally occurring meteors... They're loaded with metal and are vaporized in the upper atmosphere 24x7x365... and have been doing so for pretty much all of the 4 billion years the planet has been around.

[–] SupraMario -1 points 2 months ago

The paper someone links to, shows that meteoroids already dump more than 11.7k metric tons into the atmosphere every year. We know what effects it has.