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SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

cnbc.com

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Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#11

Post by jlaporte »

new_realist wrote: post #8

As far as Internet numbers go, 700K signing up to receive updates isn't that amazing.

SpaceX/Starlink have done effectively no marketing spend to get those leads into their funnel. Subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) for home broadband and TV are very high, and due to churn doesn't necessarily even translate into net subscriber adds. Those numbers are good by any measure.

One representative example, Subscriber acquisition costs for Dish network: "DISH TV SAC was $822 during the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to $759 during the same period in 2018, an increase of $63 or 8.3%." [1]

"We lost approximately 511,000 net DISH TV subscribers during the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the loss of approximately 1.125 million net DISH TV subscribers during the same period in 2018. This decrease in net DISH TV subscriber losses primarily resulted from a lower DISH TV churn rate and higher gross new DISH TV subscriber activations." [1]

[1] https://www.marketscreener.com/DISH-NETWORK-CORPORATION-4870...

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#12

Post by LeifCarrotson »

voisin wrote: post #5

> In addition to getting the satellites in orbit, SpaceX will need to build a vast system of ground stations and affordable user terminals if it is going to connect consumers directly to its network. Why are ground stations required? I thought you were connecting from your dish to the satellite and therefore could be anywhere with a view of the sky.

There are two kinds of ground stations: the one at your home/business (the modem/"pizza-box antenna") and the ground stations that connect the satellites to the trunk lines/backbone.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#13

Post by csours »

jlaporte wrote: post #11
new_realist wrote: post #8

As far as Internet numbers go, 700K signing up to receive updates isn't that amazing.

SpaceX/Starlink have done effectively no marketing spend to get those leads into their funnel. Subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) for home broadband and TV are very high, and due to churn doesn't necessarily even translate into net subscriber adds. Those numbers are good by any measure. One representative example, Subscriber acquisition costs for Dish network: "DISH TV SAC was $822 during the year ended December 31,…

Does SAC include new subscriber discounts?

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#14

Post by trashcan »

I would love to have this as a backup internet option. I live in a town that has Google Fiber (literally 50 feet away from me), but I don't have access. I'm oncall and cannot be without internet at almost any time, and my internet goes down much more than I'm comfortable with. I hope Starlink is an option soon!

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#17

Post by salimmadjd »

cheez wrote: post #9
dencodev wrote: post #2

I'm in a busy city so I don't think I will have a Starlink option, but I'd gladly pay twice as much to fund this than keep paying money to our evil overlord Comcast.

Comcast is likely currently working on regulation to block them.

Highly likely.

Keep in mind, Comcast owns NBC as well. So probably we’ll get a lot of negative coverage of Elon Musk on NBC and MSNBC in the process.

It’s much easier to lobby against a public villain than a public hero.

So every tweet by Musk will be amplified out of context.

Wouldn’t surprise me even some allegations of foreign impropriety will surface and soon having starlink becomes a national security unless it’s sold to Comcast or it’s offered in a way that won’t compete with Comcast.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#18

Post by Rebelgecko »

voisin wrote: post #5

> In addition to getting the satellites in orbit, SpaceX will need to build a vast system of ground stations and affordable user terminals if it is going to connect consumers directly to its network. Why are ground stations required? I thought you were connecting from your dish to the satellite and therefore could be anywhere with a view of the sky.

Eventually you'll want to talk to a computer that isn't directly connected to starlink. The ground stations are necessary to bridge that gap (and run the constellation)

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#19

Post by taf2 »

new_realist wrote: post #8

As far as Internet numbers go, 700K signing up to receive updates isn't that amazing.

It’s about a 7th the world population...

According to google

“ Almost 4.57 billion people were active internet users as of July 2020, encompassing 59 percent of the global population.”

So about 15% of everyone connected to the current internet...

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#20

Post by mlindner »

cheez wrote: post #9
dencodev wrote: post #2

I'm in a busy city so I don't think I will have a Starlink option, but I'd gladly pay twice as much to fund this than keep paying money to our evil overlord Comcast.

Comcast is likely currently working on regulation to block them.

[citation required]

Look it's one thing to hate on big corporations for existing actions, but's entirely something else to invent conspiracy theories. In reality Comcast isn't threatened by Starlink because Starlink market is aimed at less populated areas so Comcast has no need to fight it. It would be completely oversaturated by cities and cities are easy to invest in building network infrastructure.

Now, I could imagine other satellite internet companies to fight it, but they're much less powerful.

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