To expand on this further, current "satellite internet" offerings are through the use of geostationary satellites 22,236 mi above the equator. The latency to th

To expand on this further, current "satellite internet" offerings are through the use of geostationary satellites 22,236 mi above the equator. The latency to the satellite and back to earth, plus whatever the latency is to get to wherever you are actually trying to go, is significant. In contrast, the offering that SpaceX has just gotten approval for would use satellites that are about 342 mi above, and the network of satellites would be used to route the connection to a hop close to the destination. The result of the above is latencies that are actually lower than even a direct fiber connection if the haul is long enough, because connections across Starlink would be at the speed of light (minus the amount of time it takes to process packets at each hop), and the speed at which data is transferred over fiber is some fraction of the speed of light.