Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink? • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#311

Post by rob74 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 8:17 AM UTC

andrewharvey wrote: post #215

modeless wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have it exactly backwards. It is far less complex and expensive and resource intensive to build Starlink than to run a new copper or fiber line with associated telecom equipment on both sides to every rural residence in the US, let alone worldwide. Yes, despite the large cost of launching satellites. And it's especially good that we don't have to force everyone to subsidize inefficient monopoly utilities with our…

this. Except it's no longer only in rural areas, grid connected utilities are now costing more than being off grid in the cities too. Starlink residential 100 Mbps is cheaper ($69/mo AUD) (ignoring hardware and setup costs) than 50 Mbps fixed line internet ($80/mo AUD). Depending on location, home solar + batteries will usually work out cheaper than being on the grid within the battery warranty period too.

The question that comes up then is: how much traffic can Starlink handle until it gets saturated? I'm not sure it can handle even a significant percentage of the users that currently use wired connectivity. And if they see that demand for their services starts overwhelming supply, they will definitely raise the prices...

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#312

Post by bogdan » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 8:19 AM UTC

fdghrtbrt wrote: post #219

deathanatos wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

… or maybe I have 6 hours to kill? Would you look at someone reading a book and be like "it's so disturbing that people are this addicted"? Is something Internet connected really that different? (That said these days I'm thrilled if there is power on a flight.)

It IS different. Because scrolling is effortless, reading a book takes effort. Do you understand?

When am I allowed to relax boss?

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#313

Post by p0w3n3d » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 8:21 AM UTC

For God's sake you can take 2-4 hours of not working, right? Just sit and relax, or take an audiobook with you! Or watch a cringy show from 90s. You don't have obligations of sharing #airplane #boeing #starlink #momwithbaby[kl]ickingmyseat every 5 minutes or so

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#314

Post by bogdan » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 8:21 AM UTC

fdghrtbrt wrote: post #309

jryle70 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose you'd approve if I read book on the internet? What if I'd be working?

You don't need my approval. Someone was asking how I view these things, and I was explaining: reading a book is effort, scrolling facebook is effortless. Now, keeping in mind that you don't need my approval: do you have any questions?

Are you on the spectrum by any chance?

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#315

Post by vineyardmike » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:05 AM UTC

scubbo wrote: post #133

iknowstuff wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the United States can choose to live in very rural and sparsely populated areas, far more remote than most OECD countries. It’s not clear to me that we should necessarily massively subsidize their choice to live in the sticks these days. Starlink and 5G are great for this, as is solar energy and batteries. We already subsidize sprawl’s expensive-per-person infrastructure with tax revenue from dense cities.…

People can't afford to live in cities? Well, they should simply choose to live elsewhere. People choose to live outside cities, but want access to basic utilities of modern life? Well, fuck 'em.

Many of the aspects of life "outside the city" are subsidized by the city. It's affordable because of this, and the cities are extra unaffordable as a result.

There are many small towns who will never generate the tax revenue to cover their $50M highway off-ramp and associated infrastructure. The thread was about internet, which has also been subsidized. We subside oil so driving long distances is cheaper. We subsidize food production. Electricity and water distribution is subsidized by urban customers. Even health care is subsidized.

If rural people actually had to pay market-rate for these resources, it wouldn't be cheaper than the city.

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#316

Post by sysguest » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:17 AM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #293

sysguest wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this people here don't understand how large USA is -- connecting every corner with copper/fiber, with all the intermediary networking devices means tax money...

We paid $900 million in taxes to subsidize rural access to Starlink in one year lol We also paid $42 billion in taxes for ISPs to roll out broadband access in a 2021 bill, and it hasn't connected a single person to the internet Before that, we paid $400 billion to ISPs to do the same thing with the same results

wtf was this a upfront lump-sum money?

well even if I was the ISP, I'd just take the money and make the job "take forever"

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#317

Post by panick21_ » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:45 AM UTC

Tempest1981 wrote: post #213

GMoromisato wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the math works. There are 23 million rural homes in the US and about 3 million miles of rural public roads. Let's say you wired just the public rural roads (ignore going from the road to the house). It costs $30,000 per mile to put up aerial wiring. $60,000 per mile underground. So we're already at $90 billion for wired poles and $180 billion for underground. And that's just for the wires--we're not inc…

Doesn't Starlink have some annual upkeep costs? Maybe $1-2 billion per year to replace aging satellites?

Yes, but Starlink needs to exist for military, planes, boats and other essential very rural services as well. So the upkeep should pay for itself.

And of course Starlink has to be for the whole planet, so just comparing it to the US would be a false analysis.

Of course you also need to upkeep the physical infrastructure. Specially if you don't put all those lines underground.

But one would need to do some more real work to compare. I would also say that a real program for urban fiber makes a lot of sense in more places. But I would love to see somebody take a shot at this, what would be the best if you started from 0 today?

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#318

Post by panick21_ » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:53 AM UTC

infinitewars wrote: post #114

mattmaroon wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, as an RVer, I can tell you that you would probably be surprised by how much of the country does not have readily available cell service. And even if it does, they might not have it on your network. I was paying more to have SIM cards for all of the big three, and getting much less out of it

RV is a great use case but a tiny market. For fixed broadband the others are cheaper most everywhere in the U.S. that people actually live .

The markets are additive. The great thing about Starlink is that it is GLOBAL. Meaning if you want to offer it for ships and planes (where there are no alternatives) you might as well also offer it to RV. And to rural people. And to the military. And you can do so in every country on the whole planet at the same time.

Having a few 1000s of sats to cover the whole planet is crazy efficient.

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#319

Post by panick21_ » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:54 AM UTC

infinitewars wrote: post #112

victorbjorklund wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their competitors isn’t other satellite in most cases. It’s fiber, 5G and so on.

Starlink's main goal isn't consumer internet, it's being the backbone for Golden Dome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_s...

Man this dumb conspiracy again ...

Re: Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?

#320

Post by panick21_ » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 9:57 AM UTC

fdghrtbrt wrote: post #219

deathanatos wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

… or maybe I have 6 hours to kill? Would you look at someone reading a book and be like "it's so disturbing that people are this addicted"? Is something Internet connected really that different? (That said these days I'm thrilled if there is power on a flight.)

It IS different. Because scrolling is effortless, reading a book takes effort. Do you understand?

Maybe you don't know this, but there is much more on the internet then social media ...