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In Ireland we've just agreed a 5 billion euro rural broadband scheme which will involve laying fibre that goes to 540,000 rural homes. 3 Billion is the cost to
by scandox 7y ago
In Ireland we've just agreed a 5 billion euro rural broadband scheme which will involve laying fibre that goes to 540,000 rural homes. 3 Billion is the cost to the state, 2 Billion is the private investment and the private company will own the infrastructure after (I think) 20 years or so. The whole thing is going take several years to become functional and I think 7 years to be fully functional.
So my question is: how likely is it that something like Starlink could provide an alternative in any meaningful timeframe?
- hef19898 7y agoIf you ask me, not likely. Simply because the Starlink satellites will need to be replaced regularly. And thus will be expensive. While your terrestrial fibre is always there and easy to repair. Launching and building 12k satellites will also be very expensive and time consuming to begin with. But than reusing rocket boosters requires a certain number of launches to be economically feasible (I don't remember the correct number from the ESA (?) study I read a while ago). Just how Starlink will help SpaceX reach that number of launches and whether this results in overall profitability is the real question I have. But I guess this data will never be published...
- Tepix 7y agoStarlink will not just serve one country so the cost per country/customer goes down a lot.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoBut not enough to compete against efficiently deployed fiber in rural areas where you’re not ripping urban streets apart. It’ll be amazing for mobile users and developing countries though.
- rmarcil1 7y agoSpaceX cost for global coverage is about $2Bil, which needs to be replaced every 5 yrs. So about $.5Bil a yr. Maybe less than 10% that to satisfy Ireland. Can u wait 3 years?