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.
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?
He’s switched from remote workers to kids. He’s just trying to gin up outrage now.
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
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.
That’s hilarious, so you think people in developing countries should just get fucked as well then?
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.
You…you did, you’re entire argument hinges on “fuck those people, they shouldn’t live outside a city”…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.