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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[โ€“] SupraMario@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago (3 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...

[โ€“] Grappling7155@lemmy.ca 9 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You canโ€™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.

[โ€“] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 4 points 17 hours 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.

[โ€“] rekabis@lemmy.ca -3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

You canโ€™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 itโ€™s temple with a forefinger

[โ€“] Grappling7155@lemmy.ca 6 points 13 hours 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 theyโ€™ve done a good job extending their fibre networks, but I sincerely doubt weโ€™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.

[โ€“] rekabis@lemmy.ca -2 points 12 hours ago (1 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.

Half the price of per kilometer
But many many more kilometers

[โ€“] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Geosync has been working for decades. Try again.

[โ€“] SupraMario@lemmy.world 0 points 9 hours 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.

[โ€“] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 9 hours 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.

[โ€“] SupraMario@lemmy.world 0 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours 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?

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?

[โ€“] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

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.

[โ€“] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours 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.

[โ€“] TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours 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

[โ€“] SupraMario@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

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.