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Comment by matwood | Hacker News Reader

Starlink does come back to earth often in the same country or region as the user. Then it would fall under all the same blocking.

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I imagine that the blocking is semi-voluntary by the local ISPs, not at a transit or peering level.

Anyhow, I flicked through the tables for Starlink's Spain IP address blocks and they directly peer with Cloudflare, so short of Starlink agreeing to perform similar blocking itself or worse yet de peering with Cloudflare, I'd expect availability through them.

I think the relevant quote here is, "they can shake their fist at the sky".

Satellite internet isn't a philanthropy project. Whoever's selling it is operating a retail front in the client's country, running payment processing and delivering or shipping physical satellite dishes. Even if the satellite vendor is aligned with your interests (I'm not touching that third-rail topic)—if your government doesn't want you to have satellite internet, you won't have it.

Satellites aren't, in practice and for the time being, a technological end-run around sovereignty and the practical ability of governments to censor internet access.

It's been discussed on HN before, that even first-world democracies, such as the UK [0,1], feel comfortable enacting laws banning satellite internet.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42979869 ("Starlink in the Falkland Islands – A national emergency situation? (openfalklands.com)", 225 comments)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37645945 ("Saint Helena Island Communications (sainthelenaisland.info)", 145 comments)

Interestingly, I don't think you have to purchase the starlink in the same country you plan to use it (else what would be the point of the Mini version).

"they fan shake their fist at the sky... and with the other hand strangle payments that are very much terrestrial"

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