“To be piloted” “Will be running”. Are you posting from the future?
And I shouldn’t look at this gift horse’s mouth, but … why do you have to post cites that make my argument for me?
In response to lawmakers’ concerns over its affordability, Ingabire pointed out that, overall, based on its huge capacity and high speed, entities that need a lot of internet are the ones targeted by Starlink internet pilots.
You may think 48 000 Rwandan francs is pocket change, but it’s 20% of the average rural income. And that leaves aside the question of what devices are connected to this bandwidth, and their power. And not even touching the fact that Rwanda is not your typical Global South country, economically.
Mr. Bhargava acknowledged that most rural households will not be able to afford such high costs
If you think the poorest rural Indian schools can afford $100 a month, you don’t know what real rural poverty is like. If they had $100/month to spend, they might spend it first on a roof, or a working toilet, or desks, or one cooked meal a day. Or teachers. What’s the use of “cheap” internet, without the devices to connect to it or the power to run those devices? Or the calories to stave the gnawing hunger to allow you to focus on learning. Or hygiene facilities so girls can also go to school.
And that’s also leaving aside India’s overall a middle economy country.
Starlink is just another example of rich White technocrats improving the Global South by … selling things to them. Call me when they give it away for free, until then it’s about as useful as the One Laptop Per Child program - nice idea, didn’t actually do a lot of good.