Telecommunications in The Falklands Part One

[@leskaighin8903]

This was a fascinating watch. It must be very difficult to provide a universal service when there is no scale. The point about starlink looking for millions of customers not hundreds highlights this. I am in the Isle of Man, we have 85000 in a much smaller area. We have fibre, but government had to offer a large subsidy for rural areas. Our prices are higher than UK, but only a fraction of those mentioned. Sure telecom are the number two in the IOM.

[@Vincent-ow9lj]

I live in a town of 45,000 in the UK and fibre was only available to me just in the last year!

[@StephenPeat-cx1yu]

You need to get more uk people to move to the Falklands. Knowingly, the Falklands have gas and oil reserves and other industries on the Falklands. Improving housing and services more people would move to the Falklands islands. The Installing of Wind Turbines and Solar could provide energy to more places within the island. A fixed satellite in the South Atlantic that serves UK forces could provide broadband access like 5gb from space, so each household could get at least 30 mb and 10 mb upload. The satellite could provide phone coverage linking cell phones across the island, including Sky TV with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 sky Showcase, Sky News, Sky Movies and Sports. Increasing the population from 3000 to over 5000 will help with costs and phone services. I also live in a rural area, and some households link their service broadband to other households with dish to dish links with other households over 14 miles with speeds around 30 to 40 mb with 5mb upload.

[@nua1234]

Some satellite providers ast & starlink are currently trialling direct satellite to standard mobile phones for voice and data, mostly in the united states. Aimed particularly for rural areas, where terrestrial mobile service is uneconomic, however in towns and more densely populated areas it is cheaper to use terrestrial networks. In a few years time, coverage will be available in other countries who allow it.

[@danielcockerill4617]

On the starlink availability map it says that starlink will be available on the falkland islands in 2025. Hoping the the Falkland Islands can stay at the forefront of technology!

[@sedmalte2689]

what a beautiful seafront

[@zedwpd]

It is. They need to grow their communities in the camp

[@felixfonalledas893]

Wow! Falkland Islands have a very advanced technology!

[@MillAppartments-kb5vd]

A little repetitive but otherwise a thorough treatment of balancing technology with economics. Looking forward to part 2 - any discussion there of an undersea cable ?

[@dougle03]

There is already one linking to the SACS, but it's limited in speed, cost a fortune and has a long time to go to recover it's installation costs... Adding more might increase overall speeds, but will also add cost to the very limited number of subscribers...

[@DaveStockton1]

So if you want your own starlink, you have to buy a license for 5400 ?

[@DukeofEarl1961]

Per year!!

[@badwolf1984]

I saw the prices shore, what the!!! You guys are getting screwed for extremely slow service, demand fibre and unlimited bandwith

[@dougle03]

Fibre on the ground won't help if the islands up/dn link to the wider internet is limited by sat comms and the single fibre link to the SACS... Higher bandwidth is needed before greater connections are possible. Given the limited bandwidth, there would be little point in fibre to the property (FTTP) when existing tech is fast enough. I'm sure the island already deploys substantial caching of content, but the rise and now mandatory HTTPS standards make caching very difficult. There is no easy answer, and relying on Musk's Starlink would be a mistake since he has already shown he's happy to take political sides, and makes emotional decisions rather than sound business ones; take his management of Twitter/X as an example. If Starlink were to be sold off and run like any other normal company, there might be a compelling argument to allow vsat uncontested.

[@easy4x4]

The important point is the low population. So, Sure is probably a good option

[@dougle03]

Interesting that there is a Malvinas named hotel on the islands... For those that don't know, 'Malvinas' is the name the Argentinians give to the islands in their factless and baseless claim to the territory. I'm surprised any business on the island is allowed to give credence to such a name... Perhaps there is a story to this hotel, specifically how it got its name......?

[@pilot341]

Any BT Falklands, Sky Broadband Falklands, Broadband Falklands?