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Ok-Significance2027 t1_iybbwk4 wrote

Price points? Affordability? Funding and sustainability?

I have an inkling this will be short-lived due to problems similar to those faced by OLPC.

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toodroot t1_iybejp3 wrote

Have you noticed that some Starlink use in Ukraine is to plonk it down in the middle of a village or urban area and let 100 people connect to it with individual phones? Way cheaper than a mobile phone tower. Albeit annoying that you have to stay within wifi range to use it.

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Ok-Significance2027 t1_iybijjt wrote

If you wanted to expand the range to the equivalent of what a mobile phone tower would cover, how many satellite receivers would be necessary? Would the price point be more, less, or comparable to a mobile phone tower with that number of receivers?

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toodroot t1_iybjshx wrote

Perhaps you'd use a mobile phone tower plus a Starlink ground station -- satellite back-haul is already a thing in the mobile phone industry.

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jivatman t1_iybi3l4 wrote

I'd presume most of most of these would be paid for with some of the aid money that goes to Haiti,they get $2.5B per year. Internet is pretty important.

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Ok-Significance2027 t1_iybinvw wrote

But would that be the best way to use that money and would that funding be consistently reliable?

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jivatman t1_iyblblt wrote

I think it avoids one of the main problems with Haiti aid in being more difficult for this to be misappropriated for corruption, due to the Dishes being GPS-tracked. Easy to tell if it's not where it should be serving a rural school.

And yes, I do think providing rural schools with internet really is one of the absolute best uses of monetary aid to Haiti.

Whether funding would be reliable, well that's a more complex geopolitical, private donation, question I don't really have an answer for.

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