Elon Musk's satellites beam internet into remote Chilean fishing hamlet

[Judi Lynn]

August 19, 2021
8:24 PM CDT
Last Updated 3 days ago
Aerospace & Defense

By Pablo Sanhueza

5 minute read

SOTOMO, Chile, Aug 19 (Reuters) - After half an hour's windswept journey on foot and by boat through a craggy forested estuary to the school he attends in remote southern Chile, Diego Guerrero can finally access the internet.

His school is located in the hamlet of Sotomo, around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Santiago in the region of Los Lagos and inhabited by just 20 families.

A rain-drenched scattering of brightly painted wooden and tin houses, Sotomo stands out against a mist-swathed row of rocky outcrops jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. It can be accessed only by boat.

For decades, its inhabitants have survived by catching mussels and fish to sell at market, a five-hour round-trip away by boat.

Now, it is one of two places in Chile to be chosen for a pilot project run by billionaire Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, to receive free internet for a year.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/wider-image-elon-musks-satellites-beam-internet-into-remote-chilean-fishing-2021-08-19/

Hamlet

[marble falls]

1. I'd pay to get decent/dependable internet in Marble Falls.

[underpants]

2. Well Judy, you know the old saying about hamlets

The cow and the chicken were involved but the pig was COMMITTED!

[Judi Lynn]

3. So true!