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SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

cnbc.com

21–30 of 102 posts

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

#21
post #19

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...

700k / 4.57 billion = 0.01%

You're a little off. Check your math. It looks like you mistook 700k for 700 million.

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

#22
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes. From the same Dish Network 10-K:

"Subscriber Acquisition and Retention Costs

We incur significant upfront costs to acquire subscribers, including advertising, independent third-party retailer incentives, payments made to third-parties, equipment subsidies, installation services, and/or new customer promotions."

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

#23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 im…

Comcast has repeatedly lobbied for legislation to prevent the creation of municipal broadband providers; it's not that much of a stretch that they could try to use regulatory capture to attack Starlink as well.

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

#24
post #19

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...

No, Your are confusing billions and millions.

1 billion = 1,000,000,000

1 million = 1,000,000

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

#25

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!

Can you not use mobile hotspot/tether internet as a backup option?

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

#26
I have a house on a farm. I only have relatively high speed internet (25mb/s) b/c someone set up a line of sight system pointing at a mountain as a co-op. My neighbors' house about half a kilometer away is blocked by a hill so they can't use it. When it's cloudy, I have to use my phone as a mobile hotspot.

Coming from San Francisco, I didn't realize how many people face this reality of poor connectivity. I don't care much about who is doing this as much as I care that someone is doing it at all. Most people don't realize how much of an internet access disparity exists. Especially as more education moves towards digital, internet access is a fundamental utility.

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

#27
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 is currently no satellite to satellite communication with the first iteration of the technology. This means you need ground stations to receive the traffic coming from the user terminals. This can either hooked up directly to the internet backbone (ideal), or bounce to another satellite closer to the backbone connection.

Basically, user computer user wifi or router user terminal satellite ground station fiber peering to other internet providers.

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

#28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 im…

Starlink doesn't have to completely match Comcast one-to-one, they just have to be a credible competitor. That increases the bargaining power of the consumer. Particularly as Starlink grows and as OneWeb and especially Project Kuiper comes online.

These low-latency satellite constellations will reduce the local oligopoly/monopoly rents (and thus profitability) of Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Cox, Frontier, etc... And the money that would've been profit will go to consumers' pockets, even if they don't themselves subscribe.

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

#29
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.

You might find Mark Handley's visualization illuminating: https://youtu.be/m05abdGSOxY

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

#30

I have a house on a farm. I only have relatively high speed internet (25mb/s) b/c someone set up a line of sight system pointing at a mountain as a co-op. My neighbors' house about half a kilometer away is blocked by a hill so they can't use it. When it's cloudy, I have to use my phone as a mobile hotspot. Coming from San Francisco, I didn't realize how many people face this reality of poor connectivity. I don't care…

I was, long ago, a microwave radio tech. It's cool to me that line of sight issues still create issues. For the most part, my old line of work is dead because tech marches on. My immediate reaction is that your neighbor should be able to use a troposcatter shot[1] to fix his issues, but I suppose the provider has bigger fish to fry.

I'm a bit sad about it, because tech advances have technically made this sort of thing dead easy.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_scatter

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