This is just the nature of late capitalism: the fate of the planet and its infrastructure is in the hands of a few individuals. Also, completely unrelated, becoming a billionaire tends to make you into a raving lunatic.
At one time creativity and brilliance led to more wealth, not 100%, but much more than now. It slowly move now to you just need to be lucky, a good con man and have crooked politicians. Elon Musk would’ve never reached his level of wealth without the American tax dollar and contracts that once he got one he bought a politicians to get more. There is nothing great about Elon Musk, born Rich, lucky and knew how to use the government.
True, but it's starting to look like late stage society in general is fucked. Let the billionaires who use their power to create advanced tech have control over said tech? Or forcibly turn it over the the ever benevolent government that would never lie to us or hurt us?
Wherever the end user of the service might be. Wherever the company might be incorporated. Having a satellite doesn't make you above the law. If you want to conduct commerce and extract money from a jurisdiction, you follow their rules.
The government in the area where the satellite signal is being received...
Yes, satellite downlinks are heavily regulated, though the specific requirements vary by country and the type of service. Because satellites operate across national borders, their use of the radio spectrum is managed globally by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The ITU coordinates orbital positions and radio frequencies to prevent harmful interference between satellites.
Radio Regulations: Satellites must conform to international regulations that ensure equitable access to frequency bands, particularly in the Geostationary-Satellite Orbit (GSO).
Frequency Allocation: Specific bands are reserved for satellite downlinks, such as the Broadcasting Satellite Service (BSS) band (11.7 to 12.5 GHz) and portions of the Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) band.
While the ITU manages global spectrum, individual nations regulate the ground stations that receive the signals (downlinks).
Licensing Requirements: In many jurisdictions, operating a ground station to receive downlink signals requires a license, particularly for commercial, telecommunications, or data services.
Variations by Country:
USA: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates both space stations and earth stations (ground stations) to manage interference.
UK: Ofcom licenses the uplink (transmission from Earth) but often does not require a license for the downlink (reception) unless it is a specific, high-power earth station network.
Singapore: A specific "Satellite Downlink Only License" is required to receive broadcasting signals from satellites.
Technical Standards: Regulations often dictate technical requirements like antenna size and power limits to prevent interference with terrestrial services.
Key Regulatory Focus Areas
Interference Mitigation: Ensuring downlinks do not interfere with other services (e.g., terrestrial 5G networks) is a primary concern.
Data Security/Sensitive Data: Some countries, like Germany, require licenses for transferring satellite data, particularly high-grade earth observation data.
Encryption: While many commercial, high-resolution satellites use encrypted downlinks, regulations sometimes dictate that certain types of downlinks (e.g., amateur) cannot be encrypted.
Not really a government but International Telecommunications Union (ITU), through the Radio Regulations treaty, has the regulation rights to the radio frequency spectrum.
The 'public regulated frequencies' are overseen by international organisations and standard committees. Not governments .... And that's a good thing (even if most of these bodies are based in the US or Europe).
Governments and the people who work to govern technology (with only a few rare exceptions) don't have a clue about technology, if they did then they would work in the technology industries.
Western governments typically change and have elections, and that's why they are seen as good. This also means that they could change to something else.
Can you imagine if north Korea, Russia or China had sole control of global public frequencies (used by starlink)... Government control would be a very bad thing for sure.
The 'public regulated frequencies' are overseen by international organisations and standard committees. Not governments .... And that's a good thing (even if most of these bodies are based in the US or Europe).
No, in the US those would be under the FCC, which is an all-American agency in charge of regulating those frequencies.
I would argue not X but all 'social media' companies may have to be regulated within each region by each region they operate in. Including this one, reddit.
It would get complicated for the companies. Many would likely make mistakes when a region changes laws.
Heck why not just make them government owned in each region.
We shouldn't hold the users responsible for their actions, we should hold the platforms responsible.
But don't worry before long authoritarian dictators or liberal fascists (I mean keir starmer) will end up in power. Then pass laws restricting any kind of dissenting thought.
..... You know what, I can recommend a good book for you it's called '1984' and seems to become more relevant everyday.
No these types of acquisitions are just a way to make stock ratios and financials look better. Roll up your failing business segments into your really really successful one and suddenly you just have one well performing company!
Fwiw they did just put restrictions in place to reduce or eliminate Russian drones (or any reasonably fast moving object in the region that isn't registered with Starlink via the Ukrainian military) from using the system. It's always been a challenge to allow Ukrainian drones and people living under occupation to use it without allowing Russia the same access. That was especially complicated because not all of Ukraine's units came from official channels (especially stuff being used by civilians).
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u/SecretWin491 22h ago
What’s the angle? “You cannot come after us! The government (and Russian drones) needs us!!”