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The key thing here is it allows for very high bandwidth to go almost anywhere on earth, not just spots where it's easy to land a cable. Starlink's already demon

The key thing here is it allows for very high bandwidth to go almost anywhere on earth, not just spots where it's easy to land a cable. Starlink's already demonstrated how great that is for consumer bandwidth (50Mbps); a multi-gigabit link terminated at a satellite is fantastic. The part that impresses me most is they're talking about LEO satellites. Those move fast! Starlink does this with a very impressive phased array antenna design. Conceptually tracking a moving satellite with a laser is as easy as rotating a mirror, not sure how hard it is in practice.

oceanplexian 3y ago
It also circumvents the biggest problem with fiber, politics. Starlink doesn’t need permission to run a backbone across (or rather over) a country. This will be revolutionary for people in Africa, South America, and huge swaths of Asia/Australia where a few telecom monopolies have artificially jacked the price of transit.
- falcolas 3y ago
  IIUC, it only circumvents politics due to existing treaties. Those old treaties are likely ripe for revision with the extensive commercialization and the increasing number of countries capable of launching payloads into space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_outer_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_outer_space
- thecosas 3y ago
  It definitely helps mitigate the infrastructure buildout hurdles (which are not small), but they would still need to jump through any "I need to do business in this country" regulations, etc.
  - asadotzler 3y ago
    Only if they want to bring a signal down to the ground. Unlike fiber, LEO sats can send data across an entire continent of countries or states without getting permission from any of them. Wanna connect Toronto to Mexico City with fiber, gotta get the US and half a dozen states and dozens of counties all to give you easement. Not so with space lasers :-)
nottorp 3y ago
> how great that is for consumer bandwidth (50Mbps) 50 Mbps is great consumer bandwidth where?
- littlecranky67 3y ago
  Almost everywhere in Germany.
- UI_at_80x24 3y ago
  Rural Canada. On a lake shore. 30km from one of Canada's "Top 50" cities. Where I used to live, I had 2 options for internet access. A Wireless ISP that uses a parabolic antenna pointed at a water-tower about ~20km from my home; or a cell-phone based internet connection. The WISP allowed me on average 300kb/s transmissions. The Cell-Phone allowed me between 1.5Mb/s and 7Mb/s (to a max use of 5GB/month). So 50Mb/s is an incredible upgrade.
  - bcrl 3y ago
    Sounds like your WISP isn't investing in the new generation of massive MIMO radios made by companies like Cambium.
- nine_k 3y ago
  In most places where you can't economically get a fiber. That is, in most places outside dense urban cores. They are petty numerous in the US.
  - fomine3 3y ago
    Laugh from rural area via fiber
  - martin8412 3y ago
    most places in North America outside dense urban cores* But sure let's fill up space with junk because North America can't get their shit together and just deploy fiber.
- 3y ago
thadjones 3y ago
In practice, considerable difficulty. Like you said LEO moves fast. You are talking 10 min in line of sight (LOS) depending on the orbit. So the handoff algorithms (and necessary network) are very challenging and cost prohibitive. I mention it in my earlier response but if you have a LEO network you need pretty substantial arrays to accommodate such a power load, and during “night” for whoever is using the network, you need transfer mechanisms to relay the data, using even more power during eclipse. This is a real challenge.

oceanplexian 3y ago

It also circumvents the biggest problem with fiber, politics. Starlink doesn’t need permission to run a backbone across (or rather over) a country. This will be revolutionary for people in Africa, South America, and huge swaths of Asia/Australia where a few telecom monopolies have artificially jacked the price of transit.

falcolas 3y ago
IIUC, it only circumvents politics due to existing treaties. Those old treaties are likely ripe for revision with the extensive commercialization and the increasing number of countries capable of launching payloads into space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_outer_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_outer_space
thecosas 3y ago
It definitely helps mitigate the infrastructure buildout hurdles (which are not small), but they would still need to jump through any "I need to do business in this country" regulations, etc.
- asadotzler 3y ago
  Only if they want to bring a signal down to the ground. Unlike fiber, LEO sats can send data across an entire continent of countries or states without getting permission from any of them. Wanna connect Toronto to Mexico City with fiber, gotta get the US and half a dozen states and dozens of counties all to give you easement. Not so with space lasers :-)

nottorp 3y ago

> how great that is for consumer bandwidth (50Mbps) 50 Mbps is great consumer bandwidth where?

littlecranky67 3y ago
Almost everywhere in Germany.
UI_at_80x24 3y ago
Rural Canada. On a lake shore. 30km from one of Canada's "Top 50" cities. Where I used to live, I had 2 options for internet access. A Wireless ISP that uses a parabolic antenna pointed at a water-tower about ~20km from my home; or a cell-phone based internet connection. The WISP allowed me on average 300kb/s transmissions. The Cell-Phone allowed me between 1.5Mb/s and 7Mb/s (to a max use of 5GB/month). So 50Mb/s is an incredible upgrade.
- bcrl 3y ago
  Sounds like your WISP isn't investing in the new generation of massive MIMO radios made by companies like Cambium.
nine_k 3y ago
In most places where you can't economically get a fiber. That is, in most places outside dense urban cores. They are petty numerous in the US.
- fomine3 3y ago
  Laugh from rural area via fiber
- martin8412 3y ago
  most places in North America outside dense urban cores* But sure let's fill up space with junk because North America can't get their shit together and just deploy fiber.
3y ago

thadjones 3y ago

In practice, considerable difficulty. Like you said LEO moves fast. You are talking 10 min in line of sight (LOS) depending on the orbit. So the handoff algorithms (and necessary network) are very challenging and cost prohibitive. I mention it in my earlier response but if you have a LEO network you need pretty substantial arrays to accommodate such a power load, and during “night” for whoever is using the network, you need transfer mechanisms to relay the data, using even more power during eclipse. This is a real challenge.