5 ms·

These aren't geostationary satellites. There's no opportunity cost to selling service when flying over poorer countries. Of course, the price has to include the

by wahern 7y ago

These aren't geostationary satellites. There's no opportunity cost to selling service when flying over poorer countries. Of course, the price has to include the backhaul, and even poor countries have rich residents, but in any event it would be silly to fly over whole landmasses in silence.

reaperducer 7y ago
in any event it would be silly to fly over whole landmasses in silence. I imagine if Mr. Musk wants to keep his shiny new Tesla factory in China, he'll make sure this won't be used to circumvent the Great Firewall.
- sneak 7y ago
  SpaceX is not Tesla, and a company is not any single employee.
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    He however owns a significant percentage of both companies. Countries already do this to pressure countries and/or individual entities. Trade embargoes are against entire countries, trade sanctions are over certain industries/companies/specific individuals. I clear international freight through customs for a living, when I have a shipment containing something coming from/made in a sanctioned country I have to search the OFAC sanctions list for every party mentioned on the shipment https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/ https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/ China, or Fictionaltopia, could easily put pressure on one company to influence another if they have a significant investor in common.
aylmao 7y ago
> in any event it would be silly to fly over whole landmasses in silence. It wouldn't if the satellite network is operating at capacity, and therefore you can't guarantee service. Satellites communicate with one another to send information around the world. Most servers are not in developing nations— a lot of them are in the US, for example. Satellites from all over the world will all try to reach the ones that are near the US, so those will dictate the actual capacity of the entire network. If the network operates at capacity, prices will rise so low-profit customers leave and make space for high-paying ones.
- rini17 7y ago
  So you assume Starlink will relay the data primarily between satellites and will avoid handing them over to ground till close to destination? Why? Consider the inter-satellite relay is still in development and current mode of operation was described as "bent pipe". Even when it will be developed, it makes sense to offload data to nearest convenient fiber-connected ground station instead of satellites around the globe.
- nickik 7y ago
  > Satellites communicate with one another to send information around the world. Initially they wont actually do that.

by wahern 7y ago

reaperducer 7y ago

in any event it would be silly to fly over whole landmasses in silence. I imagine if Mr. Musk wants to keep his shiny new Tesla factory in China, he'll make sure this won't be used to circumvent the Great Firewall.

sneak 7y ago
SpaceX is not Tesla, and a company is not any single employee.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  He however owns a significant percentage of both companies. Countries already do this to pressure countries and/or individual entities. Trade embargoes are against entire countries, trade sanctions are over certain industries/companies/specific individuals. I clear international freight through customs for a living, when I have a shipment containing something coming from/made in a sanctioned country I have to search the OFAC sanctions list for every party mentioned on the shipment https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/ https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/ China, or Fictionaltopia, could easily put pressure on one company to influence another if they have a significant investor in common.

aylmao 7y ago

> in any event it would be silly to fly over whole landmasses in silence. It wouldn't if the satellite network is operating at capacity, and therefore you can't guarantee service. Satellites communicate with one another to send information around the world. Most servers are not in developing nations— a lot of them are in the US, for example. Satellites from all over the world will all try to reach the ones that are near the US, so those will dictate the actual capacity of the entire network. If the network operates at capacity, prices will rise so low-profit customers leave and make space for high-paying ones.

rini17 7y ago
So you assume Starlink will relay the data primarily between satellites and will avoid handing them over to ground till close to destination? Why? Consider the inter-satellite relay is still in development and current mode of operation was described as "bent pipe". Even when it will be developed, it makes sense to offload data to nearest convenient fiber-connected ground station instead of satellites around the globe.
nickik 7y ago
> Satellites communicate with one another to send information around the world. Initially they wont actually do that.