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Satellite internet is more interesting for truly remote locations, like ships, islands, and, at least for the time being, rural Africa. Fiber + cell solves a st
by killjoywashere 7y ago
Satellite internet is more interesting for truly remote locations, like ships, islands, and, at least for the time being, rural Africa. Fiber + cell solves a staggering number of problems. My daughter was streaming movies an hour into the mountains outside Chang Mai. Source: the uncomfortably warm phone in my pocket serving as the family hotspot.
- jessriedel 7y agoI think satellite price/availability in rural areas is expected to advance much faster than cell service in the coming decade or two, so you shouldn't expect your current intuitions about which is appropriate where to hold. My impression is that almost all of the upcoming cell tech comes from packing tighter cells to enable higher bandwidth in crowded urban environments without much changing the cost of providing service over wide rural areas. Have you heard different?
- killjoywashere 7y agoCoverage will increase, but bits/human, particularly uplink, is going to be harder. I can see streaming 500 channels of video, but 10-20 async sessions per household over the entirety of North America sounds like a lot of bits. Even with, say 100 satellites overhead, that's still 5-6 million people per satellite. let's call it a million households. Particularly during peak use hours in the evening, that's a lot a lotta bits.