Not quite VSAT, but in the bad old SA days (pre-demicracy), I did some work for a company that used a UK-based satellite provider for data to the client (data was sent in the VBI), and dial-up for the traffic from the client.
Still relied on a local provider for the dial-up, though, so could be censored. Before TICSA, I also looked at buying a private (pirate) satellite earth station. The Russian government were selling off surplus 8-wheel-drive military satellite earth stations, and I was thinking of parking one in my back garden (I lived on a farm). paul > On Jul 9, 2020, at 12:44 PM, Mark Tinka <mark.ti...@seacom.com> wrote: > > > > On 9/Jul/20 17:51, Joel M Snyder wrote: > >> Oh man I wish that were wholly true... Satellite/VSAT has another very >> very important attribute: it's not subject to the whims of the local >> government or regulators. So when there's an election or some unrest or >> coup or the prime minister has very bad flatulence, and some person says >> "turn off the Internet," your non-terrestrial connection is there so >> that you can continue to do business. > > Very true, except there are still a few countries that require a single > operator to have all "gateway" access out of the country, even via > satellite. So yes, install, for sure. But if someone does the rounds and > catches an "unlicensed" installation, that could be interesting. > > >> (Plus, there are also still many places outside of capital cities in the >> world where the Internet is truly awful and if you want bits, you have >> to bring your own) > > I did mention that use-case, already, in a previous post. > > Simple applications such as ATM's in remote locations is still quite > typical. > > Mark.