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So who else is planning to have 1600+ satellites in orbit by mid 20's? And can any of these competitors compete on orbital insertion price / rocket availabilit

So who else is planning to have 1600+ satellites in orbit by mid 20's? And can any of these competitors compete on orbital insertion price / rocket availability with SpaceX? The entire concept is that SpaceX is basically going for backbone global fiber delivery, not end users as first customers at first at least. As long as SpaceX can do the Satellite tech needed, I can't see how they can loose long term. Elon does not think small.

shaklee3 7y ago
The number of satellites is not relevant. It's a single parameter a large number of them which describe how well the constellation will perform. Please see here for more detail: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.mit.edu/~portillo/files/Comparison-LEO-IAC-2018-slides.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi00Kjv0_bhAhXNu54KHcnuA6sQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw07haQ4In4XKLe0tB0IiviQ&cshid=1556587401142 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://... The satellites are not the hard part, even though they are extremely hard. The hard part is going to be getting a suitable user antenna for a low enough cost that they will make the money back. So far they have not spoken publicly about their user terminal or cost, other than a couple sound bites musk said years ago about how low he wants the cost.
derekp7 7y ago
I can actually see this working as a backbone provider. Take any underserved area, rent space on cell phone towers or water towers or grain silos, and deploy an all-in-one kit that has the Starlink antenna along with a WISP transmitter and solar power. Also would work for apartment owners who want to get an additional revenue stream by being the sole provider of internet to their tenants.