If you think dealing with Spectrum or Comcast is a sore throat, think about how bad it will be to deal with Russia. Spacelink competitor and the only state-approved satellite internet provider, Sphere.
People on the Internet in Russia can face fines if they use any satellite internet constellation that the state considers a threat to national security, including OneWeb and Space X’s Starlink, Ars Technica reports.
The fines that the Russian state is considering range from 10,000 to 30,000 RUB, or about 130 to 390 USD, for regular users. They can reach up to 1,000,000 RUB or just over 13,000 USD for legal entities.
The part related to legal persons is obvious. But the proposed fines against users are unfortunate, given that the whole shtick of Starlink was to provide global internet coverage and an alternative to internet service providers (ISPs) that could not serve everyone – or, as It often happens, I am the only ISP for an area and thus free to adopt unfair business practices.
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But because the Russian space program has transferred its rivalry from NASA to SpaceX, whatever the company does is seen as a threat and a thin covert attempt to advance American technological superiority.
The head of Russian space and Bond’s amateur villain, Dmitry Rogozin, said that Starlink is “a rather captivating, intelligent, powerful, high-tech US policy that uses Shock and Awe to advance, above all, its interests.” their military ”. on Burned report.
So the Russian state has proposed its own satellite internet constellation to compete with Western services. Well, not to compete so much as to replace it, but the unique constellation service available to Russian users, thus becoming exactly bully telecom Starlink should replace. Path, Roscosmos!
It’s an ironic twist, but very intentional, because one of the (main) reasons why Starlink threatens the Russian state is that it offers no way to monitor users of the service. But Sphere is not a certainty, because the cost of launching the Soyuz-flavored Starlink is prohibitive. And that could be the silver lining of the whole thing.
What is a frozen relationship between the Russian space program and subsidized by the US Department of Defense Space X when we can have access to subreddits like this one and this other free in the coming years?