4 ms·

Don't assume that the US is representative here. Currently living in Germany, and in most neighbourhoods (even here in Berlin) fibre to the home is unavailable

by dbspin 4y ago

Don't assume that the US is representative here. Currently living in Germany, and in most neighbourhoods (even here in Berlin) fibre to the home is unavailable and the best connections available are DSL. Starlink would be an enormous upgrade, and there's a huge untapped market. And that's in the middle of the developed world. Presumably lots of other markets are in a similar position, and there are many increasingly populous places where weather, remoteness, elevation and other issues make other connections unavailable for the foreseeable future. Starlink should have no problem greatly increasing their customer base.

candiddevmike 4y ago
I don't doubt that starlink can find customers, I don't think they'll be able to keep them long enough to make a profit.
justapassenger 4y ago
Starlink doesn’t work for anything else than very sparsely populated areas. Population density in most of Europe is beyond of what they can support.
- rlt 4y ago
  Starlink works fine in densely populated areas, they just have a fixed number of users per square mile they can serve regardless of the density. There also tends to be more competition in densely populated areas (but perhaps more people looking for backup internet)
Reason077 4y ago
> "fibre to the home is unavailable and the best connections available are DSL. Starlink would be an enormous upgrade" 5G is also an enormous upgrade from DSL, and better suited for dense urban areas. Here in the UK it's at least 4X faster than Starlink and 1/4 the cost. I haven't had any fixed-line internet connection at all in the past 2 years since cheap 5G became available. Starlink is great for rural areas, which often have poor DSL and neither fibre nor good mobile coverage.
KptMarchewa 4y ago
Fiber should be the solution there, then 5G, not Starlink.
gdy 4y ago
"And that's in the middle of the developed world." In this case 'developed' means 'having legacy infrastructure'.
- walrus01 4y ago
  There are small ISPs doing roof to roof singlemode fiber in very densely populated parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh that probably beat this guy's German copper dsl speeds by 50x.
tsimionescu 4y ago
The fact that much of Western Europe and the USA have severely outdated legacy networks is not reflective of the state of the Internet in urban areas. Here in the much poorer Bucharest, a good chuck of apartments already have fiber to the home, and those that don't still have fiber to the apartment building, and those that don't still have broadband. DSL speeds have not been a thing for essentially anyone in the whole city for >15 years. The situation is slightly but not that much worse for most other cities and towns. This could easily and cheaply be done in any city in the developed world, and in most rural areas as well. That it isn't happening is one of the failures of the free market and government.

by dbspin 4y ago

candiddevmike 4y ago

I don't doubt that starlink can find customers, I don't think they'll be able to keep them long enough to make a profit.

justapassenger 4y ago

Starlink doesn’t work for anything else than very sparsely populated areas. Population density in most of Europe is beyond of what they can support.

rlt 4y ago
Starlink works fine in densely populated areas, they just have a fixed number of users per square mile they can serve regardless of the density. There also tends to be more competition in densely populated areas (but perhaps more people looking for backup internet)

Reason077 4y ago

> "fibre to the home is unavailable and the best connections available are DSL. Starlink would be an enormous upgrade" 5G is also an enormous upgrade from DSL, and better suited for dense urban areas. Here in the UK it's at least 4X faster than Starlink and 1/4 the cost. I haven't had any fixed-line internet connection at all in the past 2 years since cheap 5G became available. Starlink is great for rural areas, which often have poor DSL and neither fibre nor good mobile coverage.

KptMarchewa 4y ago

Fiber should be the solution there, then 5G, not Starlink.

gdy 4y ago

"And that's in the middle of the developed world." In this case 'developed' means 'having legacy infrastructure'.

walrus01 4y ago
There are small ISPs doing roof to roof singlemode fiber in very densely populated parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh that probably beat this guy's German copper dsl speeds by 50x.

tsimionescu 4y ago

The fact that much of Western Europe and the USA have severely outdated legacy networks is not reflective of the state of the Internet in urban areas. Here in the much poorer Bucharest, a good chuck of apartments already have fiber to the home, and those that don't still have fiber to the apartment building, and those that don't still have broadband. DSL speeds have not been a thing for essentially anyone in the whole city for >15 years. The situation is slightly but not that much worse for most other cities and towns. This could easily and cheaply be done in any city in the developed world, and in most rural areas as well. That it isn't happening is one of the failures of the free market and government.