Comments on: Gogo buys competitor Satcom Direct

By: wayne

wayne — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 13:54:28 +0000

33 Thomas Street, New York
The Bizarre Windowless Skyscraper That Hears All
https://youtu.be/7Jp2wLldfiA

By: wayne

wayne — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 13:50:00 +0000

Max–
Saw that news about the cell-tower transaction. What could go wrong? (sarcasm)
If you told me the CCP owned all our cell-towers, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Are you familiar with a government agency called Firstnet?
Apparently, after 9-11 the Feds decided to ‘fix” emergency communications for 1st-responders. What could go wrong? (Sarcasm.)

AT&T has the major contract but everyone else is in on it, except Starlink.
ATT does the hardware, ViaSat has the contract for the satellite communication portion.

One Firstnet product from AT&T is a Compact-Rapid-Deployable Cell-on-Wheels (COW) these are sold to ‘first responders,’ and dig, they cost $79,000 each.
Don’t worry, if your little Fire Dept. doesn’t have the money, the government will give you a Grant, but you have to buy your own yearly ViaSat data-plan.
(Har– they recommend you “limit employee access to the data-portion” to “avoid excess data-usage charges from casual viewing of video content.” )

So, how many ” Starlink terminals could I buy for $79,000, and what would be my max monthly charge??

By: Max

Max — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:59:06 +0000

Speaking of monopolies, if you had problems sending messages last night, it’s being blamed on this technology upgrade and transition of Verizon cell phone towers to public private partnership of vertical bridge. (Who already own 500,000 towers) A subsidiary of a larger global network.

The 6,339 towers are scattered across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in a $3.3 billion deal.
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/verizon-nears-deal-sell-towers-vertical-bridge-bloomberg-news-reports-2024-09-30/
This may affect freedom of speech as all communications are routed through foreign networks.

Also heard some commentators talking about star link providing service for those affected by the hurricane. The 40+ billion dollars spent by the government to provide rural America with Internet could’ve provided everyone with star link.

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 23:43:14 +0000

Well, if I were FCC, I’d leave Elon/space alone and force all streaming content to be put on cable after 2 years and broadcast after 5.

By: F

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 21:10:16 +0000

wayne,

It is my understanding that DirectTV offers both satellite and streaming delivery options. I do not know if Dish offers a streaming option, but if you have Internet access, DirectTV (or various other providers) may have something for you that would eliminate the need for a satellite dish.

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:55:12 +0000

Big D:
It’s going to get worse on a number of levels; Skydance just merged with Paramount. More and more free streaming stuff is going behind paywalls.
Not in an overly rural area but always subjected to monopolistic control until recently.
Had Dish for TV for some time, but it became very expensive, and I became too old to go up on the roof in the Winter and shovel the dish off. Seriously considered a Starlink but they (Frontier) just wired up our area with fiber-optic.

By: Big D

Big D — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 19:34:39 +0000

Oof. That means monopoly pricing for anybody still paying for satellite TV programming. And, of course, the only channels worth watching anymore are all only available on the most expensive package!

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 17:31:27 +0000

related….
“DirecTV announced an agreement to buy the Dish satellite TV and Sling TV streaming business from EchoStar for a nominal fee of $1 in what the companies called a debt exchange transaction. DirecTV will take on $9.75 billion of Dish debt if the deal is completed. In a related transaction also announced today, private equity firm TPG plans to buy AT&T’s 70 percent stake in DirecTV. TPG already owns the other 30 percent of DirecTV.