1. They don't have to wait or hope for a starlink terminal to arrive. They just have to dig out an old serial modem or system with one built in (they were common), find a phone line which will support that, and figure out how to get a dial-up account and use it. Like most of the world did ~20 years ago and many still do. I don't know how many starlink terminals were sent to Ukraine but it's probably not millions. Millions might be able to figure out how to dial-up though since that's what everyone used not that long ago and for all I know many might still use there. 2. Unless the Russians have control of the phone systems and whatever it takes to isolate modem transmissions they can't just "sweep the air" like they can for starlink frequencies. This page (October 5, 2019) claims there are over 12M landlines in Ukraine: https://www.sidmartinbio.org/how-many-landline-phones-are-there-in-ukraine/ On March 3, 2022 at 17:45 kauer@biplane.com.au (Karl Auer) wrote:
On Thu, 2022-03-03 at 01:12 -0500, bzs@theworld.com wrote:
If Ukrainians wanted internet access and to get around blocking it'd probably be more effective to dig out old serial modems and get PPP dial-up accounts outside the country where phone service that will support that still exists.
How on Earth is that "more effective"?
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (kauer@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
GPG fingerprint: 61A0 99A9 8823 3A75 871E 5D90 BADB B237 260C 9C58 Old fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170
-- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*