So far I haven't seen anyone mention the big deal here, that Starshield is offering to take over ANY satellites communications entirely using lasers. A custome

So far I haven't seen anyone mention the big deal here, that Starshield is offering to take over ANY satellites communications entirely using lasers. A customer no longer has to include a radio system on their satellite (unless that is the whole point of the satellite), just a small laser and gimbal. This seems like a major savings in weight and power. Send your satellite up and join the existing network and you get communication to your other satellites in orbit (via laser), to the ground (via RF), and to aircraft (via RF), worldwide. All of it point-to-point which makes it very difficult to interrupt or intercept. This is a space internet, an internet for things in space, though only open to wealthy customers who can afford to launch things into orbit. I quote: INTEROPERABILITY Starlink's inter-satellite laser communications terminal, which is the only communications laser operating at scale in orbit today, can be integrated onto partner satellites to enable incorporation into the Starshield network. End quote. Depending on how large the weight and power savings are this could cause a proliferation of satellites. It may require satellites to be in an orbit near that of the Starlink satellites, or maybe not. Depends on what angle range the laser gimbals cover. I would guess each Starlink satellite with lasers already has multiple lasers plus backup lasers, so dedicating the spare ones to providing communication for other satellites might be easy. The laser/gimbals may already be time shared to spread wear evenly and make sure they are working.