Elon and DeSantis.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I'm not too concerned about it just yet. Connectivity is an important thing, especially for first responders.

After Isabelle, I was sent out to the coast of North Carolina to provide security for the relief effort, as when infrastructure is out, looters often come out to play. There's just no way to get help if they show up, so often they do.

We were issued cell phones so we could call for backup if it hit the fan where we were standing... and none of the cell phones worked. Not a damned one. All the towers were out, so, no connectivity, no signal. I was posted at a dinky little crossroads named Hobbsville, which had one bank, 3 dwellings, two barns, a small assortment of sheds, and a lot of swamp - the Great Dismal (where Blackbeard is said to haunt) is the most famous one, and it was just to the north and slightly west of where I was. No electricity, no cell service, no landlines - but the people in that little community were great.

So there I was, just minding my own business, working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week all by my lonesome, until shift change occurred, and when things got ugly it was just me and my own gun against whomever came to call. There would be no cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue.

That right there is a pretty lonely feeling. I was pretty relieved when Beggar, that American bulldog in the photo on page 300 of my e-book, showed up one day. It was that very assignment when that photo was taken. He just came wandering in out of the swamp, I shared my lunch with him, and made a fast friend that refused to leave me or let anyone else screw with me. That was one of two dangerous assignments I had where a canine just appeared out of nowhere, hung out with me until the assignment was done, and then disappeared again. I find that a bit strange, but also strangely comforting.

These measures they are taking to insure connectivity sound to me like they are being dedicated to first responders and emergency services personnel. It also sounds like, since they're portable, they'll vanish once the normal infrastructure is repaired. Think for a moment - he said specifically that the Starlink pods would cover a 13 mile radius each, and allow for 1000 simultaneous users. Now I've not been to south Florida, but I have been to some pretty lonely places... and very few of them have been so depopulated as to have a population density of 1.88 people per square mile ((pi*(13^2) = 530.93 square miles, that divided by 1000 users is 1.88 users per square mile in the coverage area), and in those places I've been that were that sparsely populated, no one had enough money to own any electronic devices anyhow.

So I wouldn't panic just yet. I'd wait to see if the temporary measures go away after your regular connectivity is re-established and the emergency services influx goes back home. That regular connectivity is far more of a threat than the temporary measures that are alarming folks. It will handle a far higher data collection load, and it already did every single day before Ian ate it.

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Yeah, but once you invite it in......

People in the middle of the desert and jungle have blogs, maybe they should ask them how they are managing that in those poor third world countries.

I am a first responder and I live out in the woods. I am surrounded by cell phone towers and I am lucky to get or receive a call, and even luckier if the call is not dropped, and that is on a beautiful clear day.

I guess us folks in the woods are a fourth world country to itself, unless someone can make some money on the deal, or when it benefits the government.

I don't trust them. 

I know, that is my problem.