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I think its newsworthy because the media cycle(social&traditional) since years framed Starlink as the only company providing such services and it turns out that
by mrtksn 1y ago
I think its newsworthy because the media cycle(social&traditional) since years framed Starlink as the only company providing such services and it turns out that you can actually use some other services. Well, actually can't realistically because those established alternatives were marketed towards B2B and that's why their equipment isn't affordable and very usable for the end user but still, its newsworthy that Starlink isn't eating their market straight away.
Also, what's cool about Starlink is that they have sort of vertical integration with SpaceX that allows them to constantly keep launching new satellites which allows them maintain lower orbit constellation that allows for cheaper end-user equipment and potentially better speeds. Also the constant recycling of satellites allow for ever going network improvement as the tech advances.
What's not cool about Starlink is that it is American and Elon Musk affiliated, which makes it national security risk for Europe and Greenland in particular. That is also part of the newsworthiness because if this becomes a trend Starlink may become unviable business for a market of just 300M people.
- microtonal 1y agoThe comments were most interesting for me, because I learned Eutelsat has over 600 satellites. As you mention, the media has framed Starlink as the only company providing good coverage. I never looked in more detail (I have fiber at home and great 5G coverage across the country I live in), so it was nice to learn that there is some competition. (Especially since the US has weaponized US services as of recently, like cutting off the e-mail services of the chief prosecutor of the ICC.)
- tedggh 1y agoThey are completely different technologies. Eutelsat are not designed for mass consumer traffic.
- dzikimarian 1y agoWhy is that? They have regular home offer in pretty competitive prices in the UK.
- xienze 1y agoIf it’s like old school satellite internet, the latency is atrocious and speeds aren’t great.
- lostlogin 1y agoBut Musk free. That has huge value to some of us. When shopping solar, installers would open with ‘we sell various brands, what are your views on Musk?’
- xienze 1y agoYeah I get that, and there’s a lot of products and services whose company values I don’t subscribe to but I still use them because the alternatives aren’t viable. If you’re OK with 1+ second latency (which makes something as simple as SSH insufferable and online gaming impossible) and 20Mbit speeds, well, good for you.
- lostlogin 1y agoIf that was the scenario I was in it would be a tough call. Luckily I have a great local ISP giving 2gig fibre (Voyager!), so that ethical dilemma isn’t playing out. The do 4gb too, but I can’t use that much, and rarely get over 1gb.
- mrtksn 1y agoThere's not much testimonials about OneWeb(Eutelsat) but they advertise sub 100ms latency and there are articles like that: https://www.ipinternational.net/oneweb-vs-starlink-head-to-head/ https://www.ipinternational.net/oneweb-vs-starlink-head-to-h... It's described as slightly worse than Starlink, which makes sense because the orbits are not that different to warrant 20 orders of magnitude performance difference. Where do you get the 1s latency number?
- xienze 1y ago> Where do you get the 1s latency number? “If it’s like old school satellite internet”
- simondotau 1y ago> I think its newsworthy Nobody is arguing that it isn't newsworthy.
- lukan 1y agoExcept the person writing the comment above? "but losing to an established competitor isn't super newsworthy"
- simondotau 1y agoSomething can be newsworthy but not "super newsworthy". In other words, it may be of some interest or importance to the public, but not significant enough to dominate headlines or receive major coverage.
- HWR_14 1y ago> if this becomes a trend Starlink may become unviable business for a market of just 300M people. 345M people. Of which, the real market is around 15M households. Everyone else already has wired broadband. I suppose some people will want an additional link for redundancy, but my understanding is that Starlink satellites would be oversubscribed if urban areas had significant adoption.
- zajio1am 1y ago> the media cycle ... since years framed Starlink as the only company providing such services and it turns out that you can actually use some other services. AFAIK, you, as end user, cannot. Last time i checked that Eutelsat offers the service only as wholesale, to ISPs and other large customers, not to regular end-users.