[–] cat-facts 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
Tech companies have been talking about doing stuff like this for a while. Facebook is doing something like this in India but they are engaged in a net neutrality debate over it because it allows only a few websites that Facebook chooses. It's also ad supported so it ends up being a shining violation of net neutrality principles. The risk is if I wanted my website to be included I could just make a donation to the project to help with costs and my website would be added to the nice list that people can reach.
The whole idea of net neutrality is supposed to be an all or nothing proposal so I can see how some of the arguments against it are valid.
[–] insert_name 1 point 15 points 16 points (+16|-1) ago
I shiver in bowl-sickening fear for what it must be like to have facebook-provided internet.
[–] rhy 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Not necessarily. If the satellites themselves had a very high speed backbone among themselves, the onion routing could happen at that level and speed might not be much of an issue. In this way, you would have no idea which satellite was serving what content to whom, or where the upload was coming from either.
[–] SpottyMatt 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I love this guy. 10/10 would totally side with him against Superman.
[–] Brotolemaeus 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I wonder how complex the issues of security and prevention of abuse by criminal enterprise will be? Knowing Elon Musk and his team, I am sure its been well thought out, but it would definitely be an interesting read.
[–] xenopriest 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
Curious how they plan to secure it from eavesdropping by nefarious state intelligence agencies. It may be even possible to pinpoint a users location as well. Iridium communication satellites have these issues now. Elon is a smart guy so I hope he keeps that in mind.
[–] 404_SLEEP_NOT_FOUND 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
Man in the middle is pointless when you have men on both sides. EG: Why eaves drop when you have direct access to the cloud.
[–] OrionBlastar ago
Some people debate that instead of free Internet we should be providing food and vaccination shots instead.
Once the satellites are in place they can hand out cheap tablets and laptops to get people on the Internet, set up a village with a receiving station and solar panels and batteries to power the devices to recharge them.
I suppose i'm on the internet side due to the "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life". You can focus efforts on food (which is good), but doesn't it sound even more amazing that a child in a villag could teach himself calculus from Khan acadmy for free and over come the position he was born into?
[–] OrionBlastar ago
That child would have to learn English first, and find some way of surviving illnesses and lack of food to better herself/himself to be able to get a better job that pays enough money to feed them for life.
[–] Satchmo 0 points 14 points 14 points (+14|-0) ago
This has been floating around since Jan. Looks like the news here is the FCC request to start testing, and the number changed from 700 to 4,000.
[–] CowboyRob 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
IMO, one of Musk's best traits is his willingness to rethink his plans when a flaw surfaces. I'd still prefer he ditched the LEO plan for a web of more traditional stationary orbits, but this revised plan at least has a chance of providing the coverage he wants.