Elon Musk to disrupt Telecommunications next with Starlink internet satellites

Tech Wire Asia ^ | 02/25/2021 | Joe Devanesan

[PapaBear3625]

The article’s closing reference to 5G/6G being competition to Starlink is so much wishful thinking. For the same reason why cable and fiber don’t go to lesser-populated rural areas, i.e. $$$/sq.mi/subscriber, Starlink will quickly gain share with service & online speed. Last week, I was barely outside the Tulsa metro and the I-44 corridor when I lost Internet connectivity on my phone because it wasn’t even 3G service. That area will be years before 5G arrives and Musk will have already locked in his subscriber base.

I can see him making offers to subscribers along rural roads: install a special base station that also provides 5G cellular to the surrounding area, and get a big discount.

[salmon76]

Musk is sometimes a pothead, BUT he is a genius and seems to lean more conservative during the last few years. He just moved to Texas which shored up his conservatism a bit. Trump thinks very highly of him.

[T-Bird45]

I can see him making offers to subscribers along rural roads: install a special base station that also provides 5G cellular to the surrounding area, and get a big discount.

That is definitely in line with his type of thinking and would represent a significant power shift in telecomm.

[mewzilla]

I know the guy’s a freaking genius.

His move to TX could just mean he’s not keen on giving money to bureaucrats.

If Musk’s on the side of the angels, then God bless him and yippee for us!

But I still find that conga line circling over my head uber creepy.

[poconopundit]

Some quick facts about low earth orbit (LEO) telecommunications sats. Miniature Expendable Satellites --The satellites are built on a standard 3U electronic rack form factor. They sit in spring-loaded boxes on the rocket. And of course, once in orbit, their solar panels flip out and start powering the device. Lifespan of 10 years. These low-orbit sats will keep flying for 10 years before they burn up in the atmosphere as it spirals into the earth. There’s no fuel onboard. Low Orbit Equals Low Latency -- The altitude these sats fly is 550 KM, roughly the height of Florida -- Jacksonville to Miami. The traditional satellites fly at 136,000 kilometers which costs you 650 milliseconds of delay as the data travels up or down.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Not in name, but the theory, yes. It seems like it would make sense to get an international consensus on requiring all objects put into LEO to have a method of self-deorbiting at the end of their useful life. It would only involve a method of reducing the speed enough to fall back into the atmosphere and burn up. A small retrorocket and an orientation method would do it.

[Openurmind]

What arrogance. They contacted me to help with Beta testing. They wanted to charge me for equipment and $99 a month to WORK FOR THEM. Only 1 out of a hundred people are actually going to need or use that kind of data speed. Videos stream just fine on higher end 3G and 4G speeds so these advertised speeds will rarely ever actually be used. At those rates they are not going to corner the market just yet.

[Ozark Tom]

5G tower needs a fiber connection.

[Ozark Tom]

A pots line and 12 Mbps for $92.00 a month from CenturyLink for comparison?

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

I have been PRAYING musk would do this, NOW give us phones, lap tops and tablets THEN we will be free of the commies censoring ALL!! Musk has had ENOUGH and I was hoping he would come through!!!

[Openurmind]

It begs the question... Do you need more because they are telling you that you need more? When youtube videos or internet TV will stream fine on 2 Mbs? How many do you want to watch at one time?

At some point I start to wonder if it is just competition for the fastest engine needed or not.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Will people lose service during a storm like directv?

[RandallFlagg]

Will people lose service during a storm like directv?

I'll let you know when I go online.
I've had satellite internet before (About 20 years ago).
Something tells me that they've improved it by now.

[Lurker]

“But it’s hard to see the satellite trajectory keeping pace with the improvements coming with cellular.”

Not for anything who understands how the cell network functions. 5G is only suitable for densely populated urban areas. It’s severely range limited and requires a huge fiber optic network to support it.

That’s phenomenally expensive and the ROI in rural areas will never make any sense.

L

[Lurker]

“There’s nothing stopping Musk from setting up cell towers in rural areas, with the voice/data traffic going over Starlink.”

Thus removing the huge investment in fiber backbone.

If the numbers work it’s genius.

L