Starlink too expensive to bridge digital divide in South Africa

Daniel Puchert

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Tesla better than Starlink for South Africa — analyst

Bringing Tesla to South Africa will have a more significant impact than launching Starlink in the country, according to World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck.

Goldstuck spoke to SABC News following President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent announcement that Elon Musk's Starlink is holding talks with the South African government to introduce the satellite Internet service to the country.
 
This guy seems to live in lala land. How is bringing an expensive electric vehicle more conducive to bridging the digital divide than an internet connection?
Yea hes huffing too much of his own brand. How the hell is a R1m+ electric car going to benefit the poor and 20% underserved areas? Or the rest of the use cases not even covered by "poor".

According to him its voodoo magic to share a internet connection between a bunch of people and thus it makes starlink too expensive!
 
However, Goldstuck says it would be better to prioritise bringing Tesla to the country.

“I do believe that bringing Tesla to South Africa will have a bigger impact than bringing Starlink to South Africa,” he stated.

He explained that although Starlink is an ideal solution for operations outside of urban areas that can justify the cost of the service, it won’t help inclusivity in South Africa as it’s too expensive.

Because Teslas are cost effective cars for the everyday working man.

And this halfwit manages to sell business research to people? F__k me...
 
Goldstuck is smoking crack..

Yes, lets bring either a R1m+ car or an overpriced solar solution to the country, because either of those is going to make a bigger difference than internet connectivity wherever the hell you are.

Fscking muppet.
 
This guy seems to live in lala land. How is bringing an expensive electric vehicle more conducive to bridging the digital divide than an internet connection?
Only argument I could think of is electric car so less emissions / fumes.
The argument doesn't really make sense since starlink can be used in communal centers for example, can be multiple neighbors come together to get a connection.
 
Cars too expensive to bridge the travel divide. We must stick with horses.

The dud was wearing two sets of clown shoes when he wrote that kak.
 
Yea hes huffing too much of his own brand. How the hell is a R1m+ electric car going to benefit the poor and 20% underserved areas? Or the rest of the use cases not even covered by "poor".

According to him it’s voodoo magic to share an internet connection between a bunch of people and thus it makes starlink too expensive!
Spot on. I suspect this “expert” just wants a Tesla.

Side note. Affordability rules for cars (especially luxury cars) to not screw yourself financially:
1. The total purchase prices of all your owned cars should not exceed 1/4 of your net annual income.
2. You should pay for it cash.

So, Teslas are for people who make in excess of R4m net per year, and have in excess of R1m in liquid cash to waste. A minuscule part of the population.

I’ll throw him a bone here, and maybe he means the battery/solar side of Tesla. I still thinks that’s not going to have the impact Starlink will have, because Tesla’s batteries and solar installs are extremely bad value for money.
 
Starlink as a technology is a lot better for rural areas, where it is impractical and too expensive to put cabling,
but I guess that does not fit with his narrative of Tesla first, then Starlink.
 
Yea hes huffing too much of his own brand. How the hell is a R1m+ electric car going to benefit the poor and 20% underserved areas? Or the rest of the use cases not even covered by "poor".

According to him its voodoo magic to share an internet connection between a bunch of people and thus it makes starlink too expensive!
Even worse, I feel the price of new or demo models can exceed R3m if they ever officially launched here.

Yeah, he most definitely did some mental gymnastics to justify that, like there'd be more millionaires willing to be in the market for Tesla's than businesses, lodges, schools, townships and most everyone else that doesn't have access to fiber to subscribe to decent internet.

Not a real indicator of anything btw, but MitMak Motors have been trying to sell their Model 3 for a long while, and no one's taken the bite. I would've thought that, despite having no presence here, offering the only Tesla in the whole country would've moved it to at least one of those just for the novelty.
 
Tesla better than Starlink for South Africa — analyst

Bringing Tesla to South Africa will have a more significant impact than launching Starlink in the country, according to World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck.

Goldstuck spoke to SABC News following President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent announcement that Elon Musk's Starlink is holding talks with the South African government to introduce the satellite Internet service to the country.
Dear Arthur. Why so unambitious? Why one and not the other?
 
"although Starlink is an ideal solution for operations outside of urban areas that can justify the cost of the service, it won’t help inclusivity in South Africa as it’s too expensive."

As opposed to f**ing buying a R1.2+ Million vehicle so you can join the line behind that taxi parked in the middle of the road.
I will make sure to tell my domestic to hold off on the data top-ups she uses each day and save up for that Cybertruck.


Arthur Goldstuck ladies and gentleman.
Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year - 2003


1726556799098.png

Guess what he wants for Christmas (Bonus) time?!?
 
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Not a real indicator of anything btw, but MitMak Motors have been trying to sell their Model 3 for a long while, and no one's taken the bite. I would've thought that, despite having no presence here, offering the only Tesla in the whole country would've moved it to at least one of those just for the novelty.
Novelty? a 3 year old Tesla for 1.6 million?
 
I guess people say these things because it gets them in the news?
 
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