SpaceX's Starlink Catapults Native American Tribe into the 21st Century

takyon writes:

SpaceX Starlink aids Native American tribe: "It catapulted us into the 21st century"

Just a week after news broke that SpaceX was gifting Starlink internet service to Washington State's Emergency Management department, the state has revealed SpaceX's satellites are also benefitting the Native American Hoh Tribe.

[...] Interviewed by CNBC, Washington State Military Department emergency telecommunications leader Richard Hall heaped praise on SpaceX's nascent satellite internet, noting that "I have never set up any tactical satellite equipment that has been as quick to set up, and anywhere near as reliable" and that "there's really no comparison" between Starlink and alternatives.

[...] Now, with SpaceX's help and encouraged by the Washington State Military's successes, the Washington State Department of Commerce's Broadband Office has deployed Starlink terminals at the Hoh Tribe's Reserve in Forks, WA. Remote and rural, Hoh Tribe Vice Chairman Melvinjohn Ashue described trying to work with the reservation's existing communications infrastructure like "paddling up-river with a spoon" until Starlink's introduction.

[...] Ashue was at least as effusive as Hall, frankly stating that "it seemed like out of nowhere, SpaceX came up and just catapulted [the Hoh Tribe] into the 21st century."

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