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Ask HN: Will Starlink Be More Than a Moderate Success?
Perhaps Starlink is going to be much better than existing satellite Internet, but how can it be better than existing broadband, at least in those places that have reasonable broadband?
My best hope for Starlink is that it will provide sufficient competition to the incumbents to do better and extend broadband more widely and maybe even reinvigorate fiber. I don't see how it can ultimately compete except on the margins.
- LatteLazy 6y agoIsn't the point the same as Tesla or Google Fibre: it's meant to force the existing market place to adapt already instead of sitting there doing nothing? I don't think Elon actually thinks we'll all drop our ISPs. I think he thinks ISPs will have to up their game. And it's a decent way to make more money on the rockets. Rockets who's purpose is to get NASA, Boeing, and whoever else up their game. Maybe I misunderstood?
- kencausey 6y agoNo, I don't think you misunderstood and it sounds like we are roughly in agreement. I agree that Musk's other ventures also challenge existing incumbents but I feel like ISPs are probably more (even if much less than I would like) nimble than in transportation (terrestrial and otherwise) industries and said ISPS already have better service at least in well populated areas than Starlink could possibly provide via radio frequencies even in low earth orbit. The window of opportunity seems small to me. I guess I'm just wondering if I am overly sceptical of the hype around Starlink that I have seen, if I'm somehow missing something fundamental.
- throwawaybutwhy 6y agoYes. Starlink is a way to provide a secure, captive scaling opportunity for Musk's launch vehicles that will carry us to Mars. While it disrupts existing ISPs, it does so at the edges of broadband coverage where service is poor. Only after that it may make inroads into areas with better service and high prices.