SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#181

Post by tarpitt » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

arjie wrote: post #75

Boy it's going to be exciting when we can get Internet access literally everywhere. Excited for humanity's return to space infrastructure!

I feel like I already have internet access pretty much everywhere with cell towers, and even then if I went to the middle of alaska or montana I could already get sattelite internet before starlink with hugesnet which is fine as long as you're not gaming or something.

But at the same time I think the low-earth-orbit is pretty nice in terms of latentcy, it's a pretty innovative approach.

I just don't get the idea behind AI datacenter sattelites and moving all this non-comms equipment up in space.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#182

Post by kube-system » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

roysting wrote: post #165

spullara wrote: post #108

I think most of this thread is missing the part where this will also work for cellphones and give you truly global coverage.

It also creates a private internet on which “private enterprise” does not have to abide by the Constitution or any subordinate laws. Sure, it’s just “fear mongering” now, just like digital ID, digital currency, mass surveillance, and speech police were 30 or so years ago, but what happens when terrestrial cable internet gets too expensive and everyone’s subject to Elon’s space internet? It’s basically the similar pla…

There are already zero private companies that have to follow the constitution, since it never applied to them, ever.

As another person mentioned, radio crosses international boundaries, but it is regulated by regulating ground equipment and people and organizations on the ground. You'll see some countries on https://starlink.com/map that are greyed out because of regulatory issues... for example, some countries such as India heavily control the use of satellite comms

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#183

Post by tarpitt » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 12:58 AM UTC

croes wrote: post #76

So SpaceX is just an overvalued internet provider?

Say what you will, but it's staying above cloud providers.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#184

Post by tarpitt » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

NetMageSCW wrote: post #128

0x59 wrote: post #99

How could this not end poorly? I cant think of one realistic scenario where there world benefits.

You can’t imagine the number of lives saved with cellular access everywhere and Internet broadband where it has never been?

Probably not that many lives, maybe like a handful of hikers every year I would guess? I think what attracts hikers in the first place is the danger, and the idea that they're exploring an area that is "outside of civilization"

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#185

Post by kube-system » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #30

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in rural parts of America where ISPs don't want to expand into.

They seem to be expanding even across rural America. These days it's fairly common for small and medium size towns to have access to 500mbps-1gbps for $50-$90 per month, and essentially all small cities and above. Reddit is overflowing with threads where people are getting AT&T to give them 1gbps for $30-$35 per month. Comcast has repeatedly offered me 1gbps for ~$50/m for five years locked-in. I have no practical us…

The word "rural" by definition typically refers to areas outside of a town or city.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#186

Post by gsquaredxc » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #178

Starlink is going to become a phone carrier that doesn’t have to pay for pole or tower access. This is the real story, so long att, verizon, and T-Mobile. Starlink is going to beat them on price and availability. Just think, no international calling fees or hassle and cheaper mobile rates.

Starlink is going to be a cellular company, except instead of maintaining cheap metal frames, they have to physically launch the antennas to space every 5 years.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#187

Post by roysting » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

jampa wrote: post #36

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

When COVID hit, I knew a lot of engineers who decided to move to rural areas / small farms because they could leverage Starlink to work remotely. Last year, when I asked whether they still liked Starlink, all of them said it is amazing, but they had gotten fiber coverage in their area from a local provider, so they don't use it anymore, or just use it as a backup. I think Starlink was a huge demand signal that there…

As with the data centers, starlink is not actually what people think it is. There’s a military purpose underlying its public front

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#188

Post by dopa42365 » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

deadbabe wrote: post #177

kevinkeller wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have India is rapidly expanding fiber internet connectivity, even in rural areas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Broadband_Network In addition, 4G/5G coverage is extensive: https://www.ookla.com/articles/india-mobile-connectivity-1h2... See India in this 5G global coverage map: https://www.ookla.com/articles/5g-map-2026 The…

Automated cargo ships. Traveling to automated ports.

The 5 wage slaves on current ocean giants aren't even a rounding error on any calculation.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#189

Post by vanshg » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:05 AM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #178

Starlink is going to become a phone carrier that doesn’t have to pay for pole or tower access. This is the real story, so long att, verizon, and T-Mobile. Starlink is going to beat them on price and availability. Just think, no international calling fees or hassle and cheaper mobile rates.

How would it work indoors?

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#190

Post by tarpitt » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 1:06 AM UTC

diddid wrote: post #180

I think the end game is convenience. Nobody really needs anything more than 200mb/s. If the average person can have their entire family stream their favorite Netflix show at the same time then that’s good enough. “Now lil Jimmy can watch it in the minivan too!”

Eh, I've got 200mb/s fiber for cheap. It's pretty good and definitely bottlenecked by crowded wifi and upstream sources moreso than the ISP. Ethernet helps somewhat.

At the same time, I do kind of want more bandwidth just so I can download massive files like model weights quickly, host a web service out of my own house, seed torrents, etc. What might cryptocurrency look like if typical residential internet speeds were measured in gb/s? Perhaps bitcoin might be capable of more than 7 tps!

But to be fair, I am a nobody.