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

zdnet.com

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

#301

Post by zitterbewegung »

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.

In America for my lifetime I have never been able to get fiber and it’s because America is too large and I live in an affluent suburb.

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

#302

Post by dtagames »

I just finished a long RV trip and I can tell you it's hard to underestimate the importance of internet access (which also means Wi-Fi calling and access to maps and weather) across our entire, enormous nation.

It's important not only for individuals but even more for businesses. Despite cell phone company ads with handsome celebrities in the desert, cell phones actually do not work in many places. But people do need to live and work in those places.

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

#303

Post by drak0n1c »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #148

Surely it’ll be an issue some day for other space activities with all the SpaceX kit up there? I know space is very large :) but surely it’d be hard to scan, calculate and control trajectories of millions of orbiting tiny things when you’re launching rockets and things? A spacex satellite almost crashed into the Chinese space station some years ago and the Chinese had to perform an evasive manoeuvre I believe

With modern automation and AI, tracking and adjusting paths is better every year. Also, anything with malfunctioning movement will quickly descend and burn up in the atmosphere at that very low orbit.

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

#304

Post by tzs »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #126
tzs wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The satellites aren't worse. It is the rockets that are worse. On the way up they emit various things into the stratosphere, which is about the worst place you can emit stuff when it comes to affecting the atmosphere. It has not been a major problem so far because in its entire history humanity has only launched around 35000 rockets that have reached the stratosphere. Ramp that rate up significantly and it comes some…

You may want to compare the emissions of all rockets annually to the emissions of jet planes daily and reconsider your position.

You may want to compare the flight profiles of jets and rockets, what layers of the atmosphere they emit in, and how the effects of the things they omit vary by where in the atmosphere they are emitted.

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

#305

Post by zdragnar »

nwah1 wrote: post #242
oceanplexian wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink accounted for 69% of SpaceX revenue pre-merger and is speculated to be already profitable including launch costs. And this is all before they launch a phone or something, or replace global fiber interconnect with a lower latency space-based alternative, replace all forms of space based telecommunications (TV, Satellite Radio, etc). Starlink is a $1T+ business without even getting creative.

For context, that revenue was $18.67 billion in 2025, with a net loss of $4.94 billion. And we must remember that 6G is in the final stages of development, which has peak speeds of 1 Tbps.

6G will have worse physical penetration than 5G, which makes it worthless in rural areas where 5G is already severely inhibited by tree leaves.

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

#306

Post by rayiner »

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.

Fiber deployment is bottlenecked by Baumol's Cost Disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect. There's basically no productivity gains being made in how quickly skilled laborers can deploy fiber. Like everything else involving skilled labor, the price keeps going up.

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

#307

Post by smashed »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #301
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.

In America for my lifetime I have never been able to get fiber and it’s because America is too large and I live in an affluent suburb.

Lack of competition is the reason. Not the size of the country. Especially in a suburb.

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

#308

Post by grommz »

roysting wrote: post #187
jampa wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[dead]

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

#309

Post by SXX »

swingandamiss wrote: post #179
MostlyStable wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

300 Gbps? Is that typo? Unless you are connecting to some very particular infrastructure on the other one, nothing you could possibly connect to could use it, and you would need gear that would be somewhat high end even for server grade. (I know you said you didn't select that option, but just the idea that it's even offered to residential units is mind blowing).

No, not a typo. Ziply has 300 Gbps at my house if I want to pay $900 a month. Instead I pay $65 for 2 Gbps

You likely meant 50 Gbps as its what come up on their website and some recent US fibre discussions.

In any case even 50Gbps likely a huge part of their total throughput and you wont be abble to use it at full speed. So its pure marketing.

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

#310

Post by wmf »

grahamburger wrote: post #297
s1artibartfast wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 billion of that rural broadband funds was allocated to SpaceX, but the Biden administration revoked it in 2020. I wonder which has connected more rural Americans

I don't think you have that right; BEAD funds were not originally allowed to be awarded for technologies other than Fiber. No one had been awarded in 2020. Many ISPs had been awarded for Fiber projects by 2025, but under this administration, the NTIA changed the rules so LEO could get the funds and rug pulled the original awardees. States had to start the bidding process over under the new rules. SpaceX took home som…

s1artibartfast is correct; Starlink was awarded RDOF money that was later rescinded.
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