• mylifeforaiur@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Is this really anything more than a publicity stunt? Where are Iranians getting Starlink receivers? Can the average Iranian afford the $100/mo subscription fee?

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      2 years ago

      Absolutely it is. This is not for the average person it is for operatives on the ground. They made a huge deal about Starlink over Ukraine for the “people” but only like 150 people or so were given access to it.

      Starlink is for military/clandestine application. Secure lines of communication are extremely important in these sorts of operations.

      • mylifeforaiur@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        The cia and the us military has many secure means of communication, none of them are starlink or any other public internet service.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmygrad.mlOP
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          2 years ago

          Of course, but there has always been reliability issues with satellites, which starlink has apparently overcome.

          It is possible that it is just a publicity stunt though.

          Stable satellite internet is massively superior to just satellite comms.

      • mylifeforaiur@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        It’s kind of silly to believe the cia has no methods besides starlink for this purpose. There have been competing geosynchronous internet services for like a decade before musk started using starlink as an excuse to keep SpaceX alive. Once again I believe this is nothing more than a publicity stunt to make sure everyone remembers how important Elon musk is so we keep the state subsidies going for his businesses.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmygrad.mlOP
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          2 years ago

          I’m gonna be honest, I thought I knew a lot about the SpaceX/Starlink CIA relationship, but I should probably brush up if I’m gonna be giving my opinion so freely… more caveats with my opinions on the matter (I know more about the interpersonal/political side than the tech side).

          Do you have any resources that inform your opinion or is it just based on your background, knowledge, and experience in a more general way?