60ms cross continent

Sun Jul 12 12:00:16 UTC 2020

Not quite VSAT, but in the bad old SA days (pre-demicracy), I did some work for a company that used a UK-based satellite provider for data to the client (data was sent in the VBI), and dial-up for the traffic from the client.

Still relied on a local provider for the dial-up, though, so could be censored.

Before TICSA, I also looked at buying a private (pirate) satellite earth station.  The Russian government were selling off surplus 8-wheel-drive military satellite earth stations, and I was thinking of parking one in my back garden (I lived on a farm).

	paul

> On Jul 9, 2020, at 12:44 PM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/Jul/20 17:51, Joel M Snyder wrote:
> 
>> Oh man I wish that were wholly true... Satellite/VSAT has another very
>> very important attribute: it's not subject to the whims of the local
>> government or regulators.  So when there's an election or some unrest or
>> coup or the prime minister has very bad flatulence, and some person says
>> "turn off the Internet," your non-terrestrial connection is there so
>> that you can continue to do business.
> 
> Very true, except there are still a few countries that require a single
> operator to have all "gateway" access out of the country, even via
> satellite. So yes, install, for sure. But if someone does the rounds and
> catches an "unlicensed" installation, that could be interesting.
> 
> 
>> (Plus, there are also still many places outside of capital cities in the
>> world where the Internet is truly awful and if you want bits, you have
>> to bring your own)
> 
> I did mention that use-case, already, in a previous post.
> 
> Simple applications such as ATM's in remote locations is still quite
> typical.
> 
> Mark.