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Comment by techrat | Hacker News Reader

> In an ultra packed City like HK, I could detect at least a dozen AP at any given time.

On a rooftop in Philadelphia, just standing in one spot and turning 360 degrees in a circle with my laptop, I was able to detect over 50 Wifi APs... (Good 'ol Netstumbler.)

This was in 2003.

A dozen in a city like HK seems quite low.

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> A dozen in a city like HK seems quite low.

...which is the actual effect in a high interference scenario. The more interference you have, the less interpretable data you get.

Also you don't know how many people turned off their WiFi and just ran Ethernet cables everywhere after struggling to get usable connection speeds.

I'm also in HK. Keep in mind that there are solid walls and floorings between my home and other apartments and buildings.

I can count 67 APs right now.

Well I didn't double count all the 2.4/5Ghz Variant. But even so, 67 is.... insane.

And Oh Wow. I am checking out T1 now. :)

Japan in 2007 on a fairly high floor the list went off the end of my mac's screen. And my bluetooth mouse did not function.

2007.

Your comment resonates with me. From our rural house in Ontario there are no other APs visible. None, but our own. I've even started disabling encryption just because I can. But we struggle to get even basic internet connectivity. Interesting that on both ends of the spectrum there are issues.

Starlink is not available in your area?

starlink only just went publicly available - its going to take a while to filter out to people who it could benefit.

Just got a Starlink invitation. But it has very expensive monthly rates, that are more than twice the rate of standard isp's. In rural areas. $136 in Canada. Plus a lot of hardware. (625$) It is very cool, though. Haven't decided. At this time - Only worth it as a tech geek out, experiment. (Unless it gets better and cheaper.)

I see 24 APs other than my own just sitting here on my couch in a locale less dense than HK. So yes, agreed

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