4 ms·

Google wins cloud deal from SpaceX for Starlink internet connectivity

29 points by kaycebasques 5y ago

kevincox 5y ago
There are rumors that if Google was an ISP they would be the largest ISP in the world. I guess this makes Google an ISP. Unfortunately I doubt that we will see any evidence of their total network capacity.
- devonbleak 5y ago
  They were dabbling a bit with Project Loon and Google Fiber. A Starlink partnership gives them more reach with less capital. Not sure I would see enough value from shaving a few ms off an already long round trip to space and back to really move workloads to GCP just for one ISP. Starlink will be great for underserved rural areas but just the difference between WiFi and a wired connection in my house makes me think terrestrial wired last mile distribution isn't going anywhere.
  - myrandomcomment 5y ago
    So I have a use case that makes it interesting vs. my current cable provider even when I have the business level service. The power goes out here, either from winds, fires or PG&E shutoffs. Okay cool, have generator, solar, etc. Internet still goes down after a bit and stays down until power comes back because the cable providers node does not have enough power to deal with 18 hours of no power. With Starlink, I am going to be good. I am in SV so it is not like I am on a farm in the midwest someplace.
    - devonbleak 5y ago
      Yeah I had this thought after posting my previous comment. I have cable and DSL now in the suburbs of Los Angeles because the cable is so flakey - switching to Starlink may be a good alternative to the maxed out 75Mbps DSL line as a backup.
  - clhodapp 5y ago
    They also run Fi, which is definitely a sort of ISP
    - meepmorp 5y ago
      Isn't that just an MVNO on top of T-Mobile? How much of the actual network do they run?
meepmorp 5y ago
I can't tell if Google's actually providing services for Starlink (like network management, DNS, etc.), or this is just a peering agreement. The article makes it sound like Google somehow won a deal, but all it describes is SpaceX putting ground bases near their data centers. The mention of Azure towards the bottom makes me think Starlink is willing to do this kind of thing with any cloud provider.
- skissane 5y ago
  I think part of it is competition with Amazon's Project Kuiper. Kuiper is way behind Starlink in terms of actual satellites deployed, and is facing much higher launch costs too. Kuiper is going to have to find a competitive differentiator to try to make up for being so late to the market. One obvious potential differentiator is integration with AWS. So I think this GCP deal is primarily about having a response to Amazon on that topic. AWS integration is the kind of differentiator which will mainly appeal to B2B customers–although possibly B2C customers might experience some benefits of reduced latency. I think for a B2C differentiator, they may look at bundling Amazon Prime with Kuiper. I think it will be harder for SpaceX to answer that–SpaceX can probably do some deal with Netflix (for example), but Netflix is going to want to be paid for such a deal, whereas Kuiper can bundle Amazon Prime essentially for nothing. That said, if SpaceX is the technically better solution (more satellites, more capacity, etc), that is going to be more important to most consumers than free Amazon Prime included will be.
  - m463 5y ago
    > Kuiper is way behind Starlink in terms of actual satellites deployed Wikipedia says they've contracted with ULA for some launches, but as far as I can tell, they've haven't launched anything. I think commercial development of space is a wonderful thing, but amazon seems to have been obstructing a lot while actually developing little. I think they need to prioritize on execution.
908B64B197 5y ago
How big of a discount did Google agree to? For a customer that high profile they can show to investors, surely SpaceX isn't paying retail for that.
fumblebee 5y ago
Google owns up to 10% of SpaceX [1]. Honest question, could that have had any bearing on the decision to award this cloud partnership, or is Google’s part-ownership inconsequential here? Note - I couldn’t track down a precise ownership figure, but along with Fidelity they invested $1bn back in 2015. [1] https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/technology/google-makes-1-billion-investment-in-spacex.amp.html%3f0p19G=6214 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/te...
webmobdev 5y ago
Any ISP using Google's infrastructure will be avoided by users who care about their privacy.

29 points by kaycebasques 5y ago

There are rumors that if Google was an ISP they would be the largest ISP in the world. I guess this makes Google an ISP. Unfortunately I doubt that we will see any evidence of their total network capacity.

devonbleak 5y ago
They were dabbling a bit with Project Loon and Google Fiber. A Starlink partnership gives them more reach with less capital. Not sure I would see enough value from shaving a few ms off an already long round trip to space and back to really move workloads to GCP just for one ISP. Starlink will be great for underserved rural areas but just the difference between WiFi and a wired connection in my house makes me think terrestrial wired last mile distribution isn't going anywhere.
- myrandomcomment 5y ago
  So I have a use case that makes it interesting vs. my current cable provider even when I have the business level service. The power goes out here, either from winds, fires or PG&E shutoffs. Okay cool, have generator, solar, etc. Internet still goes down after a bit and stays down until power comes back because the cable providers node does not have enough power to deal with 18 hours of no power. With Starlink, I am going to be good. I am in SV so it is not like I am on a farm in the midwest someplace.
  - devonbleak 5y ago
    Yeah I had this thought after posting my previous comment. I have cable and DSL now in the suburbs of Los Angeles because the cable is so flakey - switching to Starlink may be a good alternative to the maxed out 75Mbps DSL line as a backup.
- clhodapp 5y ago
  They also run Fi, which is definitely a sort of ISP
  - meepmorp 5y ago
    Isn't that just an MVNO on top of T-Mobile? How much of the actual network do they run?

meepmorp 5y ago

I can't tell if Google's actually providing services for Starlink (like network management, DNS, etc.), or this is just a peering agreement. The article makes it sound like Google somehow won a deal, but all it describes is SpaceX putting ground bases near their data centers. The mention of Azure towards the bottom makes me think Starlink is willing to do this kind of thing with any cloud provider.

skissane 5y ago
I think part of it is competition with Amazon's Project Kuiper. Kuiper is way behind Starlink in terms of actual satellites deployed, and is facing much higher launch costs too. Kuiper is going to have to find a competitive differentiator to try to make up for being so late to the market. One obvious potential differentiator is integration with AWS. So I think this GCP deal is primarily about having a response to Amazon on that topic. AWS integration is the kind of differentiator which will mainly appeal to B2B customers–although possibly B2C customers might experience some benefits of reduced latency. I think for a B2C differentiator, they may look at bundling Amazon Prime with Kuiper. I think it will be harder for SpaceX to answer that–SpaceX can probably do some deal with Netflix (for example), but Netflix is going to want to be paid for such a deal, whereas Kuiper can bundle Amazon Prime essentially for nothing. That said, if SpaceX is the technically better solution (more satellites, more capacity, etc), that is going to be more important to most consumers than free Amazon Prime included will be.
- m463 5y ago
  > Kuiper is way behind Starlink in terms of actual satellites deployed Wikipedia says they've contracted with ULA for some launches, but as far as I can tell, they've haven't launched anything. I think commercial development of space is a wonderful thing, but amazon seems to have been obstructing a lot while actually developing little. I think they need to prioritize on execution.

908B64B197 5y ago

How big of a discount did Google agree to? For a customer that high profile they can show to investors, surely SpaceX isn't paying retail for that.

fumblebee 5y ago

Google owns up to 10% of SpaceX [1]. Honest question, could that have had any bearing on the decision to award this cloud partnership, or is Google’s part-ownership inconsequential here? Note - I couldn’t track down a precise ownership figure, but along with Fidelity they invested $1bn back in 2015. [1] https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/technology/google-makes-1-billion-investment-in-spacex.amp.html%3f0p19G=6214 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/te...

webmobdev 5y ago

Any ISP using Google's infrastructure will be avoided by users who care about their privacy.