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<p>I like that mental model, too, although the way Internet
development has historically played out in the Pacific has been
quite diverse in comparison.</p>
<p>Some place, e.g., Niue, did initially exactly that - the local
geek guru got it going and things went from there. Other places
were worried that their monopoly telco might get competition, and
kept a lid on it for reasons political or simply because they
genuinely felt that their island was too small not to pool
resources in a single provider. Some islands don't have geek
gurus. Tonga is a case in point here - the smaller islands that
didn't have cable so far are, with the exception of 'Eua, very
small in terms of population, a few hundred people at most, many
only have a few dozen. <br>
</p>
<p>On many of these smaller islands, the only businesses are small
stall-like shops that will sell bread from the local baker and
necessities such as tooth paste, soap, batteries and that sort of
thing, plus peanuts and other imported snacks. Whatever the supply
ship brings when it comes, which could be once every few months in
some cases. Most people live off the land, go fishing or collect
shellfish on the reef, and in some cases will produce crafts like
pandanus mats or tapa cloth, some of which is sent overseas and
can generate a bit of income. There are a lot of old people in
comparison to younger folk, who have often left for a life
overseas to support those back home. Post offices, coffee shops
and libraries exist only on the larger islands. The smaller
islands will always have more churches than you can count, and
sadly some of these still see the Internet as something to be kept
out at all cost - something that's by no means unique to Tonga. <br>
</p>
On 26/02/2022 2:27 pm, Dave Taht wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CAA93jw7Kmq5msgiTBeDO3fOTMcKxt3zjz9j2TqVL0kwsS=0BOA@mail.gmail.com">
My mental model for starlink was very different than what has
deployed<br>
so far. A local geek guru would get one for the local
library/coffee<br>
shop/post office, set up local wifi and computers cybercafe style,
set<br>
up a few other p2p wireless links, perhaps a lte node, etc, and<br>
enhance village to village (or island to island) communications
via a<br>
starlink node X miles away, as well as provide/integrate with more<br>
local services such as local email, videoconferencing and
telephony<br>
without having to traverse the sat at all.<br>
<br>
As things built out, fiber or other forms of connectivity would<br>
emerge, eventually connecting via land or high speed p2p fixed<br>
wireless links, and starlink reverting to more of a backup.
Existing<br>
ISPs (notably wisps), would build out excessively remote areas
this<br>
way.<br>
<br>
This "vision" is highly influenced by efforts such as the
villagetelco<br>
and olpc. To some extent the new "premium" service could go that
way,<br>
but classic business networking services like BGP, working ipv6,
real<br>
ipv4 addresses, etc, are so far, lacking. BYOIP and dual homing
for<br>
existing providers has not been spoken of...<br>
<br>
But anyway, I hope the government of tonga uses what they got
wisely,<br>
though my primary use case would be for multiplexing low bitrate
apps<br>
for a lot of people (like voip and financial transactions), over
the<br>
web for a few.<br>
<br>
On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 8:12 PM Ulrich Speidel
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ulrich@cs.auckland.ac.nz"><ulrich@cs.auckland.ac.nz></a> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Someone from FINTEL mentioned this during my seminar on
Thursday, apparently they started operations on the 16th and
launched officially on the 23rd.<br>
><br>
> That said, if you try to order Starlink for an address in,
say, Neiafu on Vava'u, which has 15k people on it and lost its
domestic cable connection, you'll be able to pay a US$99 deposit
to reserve Starlink for ... 2023.<br>
><br>
> The 50 or so Dishys they have delivered will remain under
government control and will probably go all over the place, as
there are many smaller island that have no connectivity at all
right now. So I doubt that we'll see end user reviews any time
soon. I may be able to get some informal feedback in a while.<br>
><br>
> One of the local satellite(-agnostic) ISPs did a review of
Starlink service in Auckland, at 37 degrees south:<br>
><br>
> <a href="https://getgravity.nz/blog/starlink-review-new-zealand-test-results-2022" moz-do-not-send="true">https://getgravity.nz/blog/starlink-review-new-zealand-test-results-2022/</a><br>
><br>
> Now that's with a gateway in cycling distance (Clevedon) and
two more within less than 200 km, in a region that is probably not
too overloaded with users right. They still see frequent outages,
and I guess it would be worse in Tonga for the time being.<br>
><br>
> But I guess if it's the alternative to zero connectivity,
it's worth having, so kudos to them for pushing the envelope here.<br>
><br>
> On 26/02/2022 7:19 am, Nathan Owens wrote:<br>
><br>
> <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1497258566347943936" moz-do-not-send="true">https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1497258566347943936</a><br>
><br>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 9:15 AM Nathan Owens
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:nathan@nathan.io"><nathan@nathan.io></a> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> Per the Starlink 4-11 Launch webcast just minutes ago,
they have launched service in Tonga.<br>
>><br>
>> On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 9:12 AM Ulrich Speidel
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz"><u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz></a> wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>> Matangitonga said that Starlink wanted to launch this
week. But I haven't heard confirmation from anyone that they
actually have.<br>
>>><br>
>>> I guess a dishy without a link might still make a
nice coffee table if nothing else & might even keep your
coffee at temperature for a bit longer, but seriously: I suppose
they must think in earnest that they'll be able to deliver at
least some service some percentage of the time, which is more than
some of the smaller places have right now. And I don't really want
to dump on them - at least they tried, as did with varying levels
of success almost everybody else in the satellite business, and
that's really all you can ask for.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Tongans are also an incredibly patient and grateful
people, whatever they have they make do with. I first had plenty
of opportunity to witness this when we went there on our honeymoon
in 2003. One of the island villages we stayed on in the Ha'apai
group had piped water to the beachfront properties installed yonks
ago, before they got electricity. Then the Australians brought
electricity around 2002 & used a trench digger to put the
cable in along the main drag, unaware that there were water pipes
in the ground. The locals were too grateful for the electricity to
complain that they now needed to walk to the cistern to get their
water, and the problem remained unsolved a year later - we had to
wash from big barrels and a bit of rainwater off the roof. As we
left Ha'apai after a hair-raising boat passage in a 4 m boat in 6
m swells, we didn't have a flight booked, so went to the Ha'apai
office of the long since defunct Royal Tongan Airlines to book
ourselves on the next flight out. The two ladies in the office
gave us their most welcoming smiles, along with the regret that
they couldn't book us a ticket as the computer were down. We asked
how long such outages typically lasted and were told that they
didn't know but this one had lasted three months already. We then
made our way to the airport with the help of a few bored Mormon
missionaries. We were the only people there until the station
manager turned up. He reckoned there would be seats and told us
that he was the local baker as well and had been trying out
artisan bread recipes, which the locals liked, but was finding it
difficult to get the right flour. Nice chat! Eventually the plane
arrived early without any passengers. Pilots and station manager
spent ten seconds bitching about their employer (rightfully so, a
long story I shan't repeat - but neither the employees' nor the
management's fault, though), then the pilots decided that they
wanted lunch in Vava'u and off we took 15 minutes ahead of
schedule...<br>
>>><br>
>>> On 22/02/2022 8:45 pm, Daniel AJ Sokolov @mobile
wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>> So the Starlink terminals have arrived on Tongatapu,
but are not operational yet?<br>
>>><br>
>>> Cheers<br>
>>> Daniel<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> On February 22, 2022 7:31:25 a.m. UTC, Ulrich Speidel
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ulrich@cs.auckland.ac.nz"><ulrich@cs.auckland.ac.nz></a> wrote:<br>
>>> >FWIW... this restores connectivity to ~80% of
Tonga's population.<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >The domestic cable may be up to 9 months off,
depending on cable lead<br>
>>> >time, apparently it's got to come from France. In
the interim, there's<br>
>>> >work on more satellite connectivity, I heard from
a satellite ISP in NZ<br>
>>> >today that they were about to ship a few units
for Eutelsat links up. I<br>
>>> >haven't heard any further about operational
readiness of Starlink, but<br>
>>> >have heard from a well-connected source that the
dishys delivered to<br>
>>> >Tonga will remain in Tongan government service in
underconnected places<br>
>>> >if and when service becomes available.<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >I would expect them to hang onto a couple of
units for Tongatapu just in<br>
>>> >case there'll be more turbidity currents messing
with the cable, heaven<br>
>>> >forbid.<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >--<br>
>>>
>****************************************************************<br>
>>> >Dr. Ulrich Speidel<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >School of Computer Science<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >Room 303S.594 (City Campus)<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >The University of Auckland<br>
>>> ><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz">u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz</a><br>
>>> ><a href="http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/</a><br>
>>>
>****************************************************************<br>
>>> ><br>
>>> ><br>
>>> ><br>
>>> >_______________________________________________<br>
>>> >Starlink mailing list<br>
>>> ><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net">Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net</a><br>
>>> ><a href="https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink</a><br>
>>><br>
>>> --<br>
>>>
****************************************************************<br>
>>> Dr. Ulrich Speidel<br>
>>><br>
>>> School of Computer Science<br>
>>><br>
>>> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)<br>
>>><br>
>>> The University of Auckland<br>
>>> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz">u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz</a><br>
>>> <a href="http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/</a><br>
>>>
****************************************************************<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> _______________________________________________<br>
>>> Starlink mailing list<br>
>>> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net">Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net</a><br>
>>> <a href="https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink" moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink</a><br>
><br>
> --<br>
>
****************************************************************<br>
> Dr. Ulrich Speidel<br>
><br>
> School of Computer Science<br>
><br>
> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)<br>
><br>
> The University of Auckland<br>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz">u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz</a><br>
> <a href="http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/</a><br>
>
****************************************************************<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Starlink mailing list<br>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net">Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net</a><br>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
I tried to build a better future, a few times:<br>
<a href="https://wayforward.archive.org/?site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.icei.org" moz-do-not-send="true">https://wayforward.archive.org/?site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.icei.org</a><br>
<br>
Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC<br>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
****************************************************************
Dr. Ulrich Speidel
School of Computer Science
Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
The University of Auckland
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz">u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/">http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/</a>
****************************************************************
</pre>
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