Re: Uganda Communications Commission shutdown order

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021, Mark Tinka wrote:
> Satellite is hard to control, and there are several ways to get it into a 
> country and have it function for purpose without any real drama.
>
> It's where we came from :-)...

There is only one problem in engineering -- scaling.

Country internet shutdowns never go to zero.  There's usually 5% to 15% 
left over connectivity. There are always a few embassies, international 
companies, NGOs and even government offices itself with left over service.

Satellites (even next-gen) are great for small outposts, ships, oil 
platforms.  But have scaling problems, i.e. billing millions of customers 
without the government noticing.  Large capacity earth stations and 
cable landing sites are noticable.

The mobile phone carriers and ISPs serving the other million(s) customers 
will obey the government shutdown orders. Its very difficult (cost, 
techincally, access) for the ordinary consumer to get around their own 
government's orders.  Yes, the rich can always afford/get sat-phones and 
sat-modems.

When an autocratic government notices too many people using something 
else, it can become very painful for those subscribers.

And of course, international treaties (ITU) covering satellites and 
international radio transmissions are written by governments.