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I believe so - its a very small niche. If I understand correctly, the target audience is: - remote places, with - people who need internet but dont have a wir

I believe so - its a very small niche. If I understand correctly, the target audience is: - remote places, with - people who need internet but dont have a wire or fiber running to them, and - who can afford a super expensive starlink (have disposable income), and - for who 3G/4G isnt good enough Thats not a lot of people outside the US

7952 4y ago
There is no reason why they would necessarily need to charge such high monthly prices in poorer countries. If the marginal costs can be kept low enough then it would be stupid to miss out on the revenue. A key to that is probably the inter satellite links to avoid needing so many base stations. Also, parts of Africa have pretty good cell coverage. So it may not be needed in a lot of areas.
jen729w 4y ago
It’s a lot of geographical Australia. Which isn’t a lot of people. A million, perhaps. Two at most.
- wkat4242 4y ago
  That's pretty ideal for satellite services. It doesn't cope well with large clusters of customers, having them spread out is pretty ideal.
ghaff 4y ago
You don't need to be in "remote" places for Starlink to be a big benefit. My brother lives about a 10 minute drive from about a 10K person city in coastal Maine and he could not get wired Internet at all and the other wireless options are poor and data limited. There are a ton of places like that. You could argue that there should be a program at the national level to get wired Internet to anywhere that gets electricity but, given the existence of Starlink, I'm not sure a many many billions of dollars program to do that makes a lot of sense and would have at least some people here throwing a fit about subsidizing rural residents.
- hungryforcodes 4y ago
  My topic was originally about users OUTSIDE the US. Everyone I meet in Asia is pretty OK with 4g, also home based internet is pretty good. It's important to understand the US is behind the rest of the world in many things, including this area.
sderfghionio 4y ago
You forgot: - who have reliable electrical power - who need low latency in particular - who do not need internet access while outside wifi range of their base station I honestly can't think of more than a handful of applications for which Starlink makes sense. And even then, it would make more sense as a backhaul for a cellular network.

7952 4y ago

There is no reason why they would necessarily need to charge such high monthly prices in poorer countries. If the marginal costs can be kept low enough then it would be stupid to miss out on the revenue. A key to that is probably the inter satellite links to avoid needing so many base stations. Also, parts of Africa have pretty good cell coverage. So it may not be needed in a lot of areas.

jen729w 4y ago

It’s a lot of geographical Australia. Which isn’t a lot of people. A million, perhaps. Two at most.

wkat4242 4y ago
That's pretty ideal for satellite services. It doesn't cope well with large clusters of customers, having them spread out is pretty ideal.

ghaff 4y ago

You don't need to be in "remote" places for Starlink to be a big benefit. My brother lives about a 10 minute drive from about a 10K person city in coastal Maine and he could not get wired Internet at all and the other wireless options are poor and data limited. There are a ton of places like that. You could argue that there should be a program at the national level to get wired Internet to anywhere that gets electricity but, given the existence of Starlink, I'm not sure a many many billions of dollars program to do that makes a lot of sense and would have at least some people here throwing a fit about subsidizing rural residents.

hungryforcodes 4y ago
My topic was originally about users OUTSIDE the US. Everyone I meet in Asia is pretty OK with 4g, also home based internet is pretty good. It's important to understand the US is behind the rest of the world in many things, including this area.

sderfghionio 4y ago

You forgot: - who have reliable electrical power - who need low latency in particular - who do not need internet access while outside wifi range of their base station I honestly can't think of more than a handful of applications for which Starlink makes sense. And even then, it would make more sense as a backhaul for a cellular network.