Subj : Re: Musk's Starlink
To   : Richard Menedetter
From : Daniel
Date : Thu Jun 11 2020 05:20 pm

-=> Richard Menedetter wrote to Daniel <=-

 RM> Hi Daniel!

 RM> 10 Jun 2020 21:33, from Daniel -> Richard Menedetter:

 Da>>> Well Musk is well on his way to having the first reasonably
 Da>>> priced and broadband/low latency satellite internet service
 Da>>> available to the public.
 RM>> Can you give a brief overview of the service?
 RM>> Or maybe post a link?

 Da> www.spacex.com

 RM> Sorry ... I could not find any price information for their satellite
 RM> service there.

 RM> I wanted to compare to other Sat Internet services.

 RM> Eg. sat internet from our incumbent telco:
 RM> 45 EUR for 22 MBit/s down 6 MBit/s up with 10 GB traffic per month
 RM> 60 EUR for 30/6 with 20 GB/month
 RM> 90 EUR for 30/6 with 60 GB&month
 RM> 150 EUR for 50/6 with 150 GB/month

I read somewhere that it will be about $80 US/month for unlimited up/down but I
could be wrong. Musk has been rather open about how American broadband
providers treat bandwidth as a commodity while in other places they don't. This
will also make it easier to provide access to the existing network of electric
cars his Tesla company is selling.

 RM> How much more reasonably priced is the Space X offering?

 RM> When going low earth orbit you gain better latency but pay with
 RM> incredibly higher cost. (you need a hackload more of satellites)

Typically yes. The services you speak of have a much smaller subset of
satellites. The largest provider only has about 60 satellites in orbit.
Currently, SpaceX has 480. Musk wants 20,000 satellites in low earth orbit and
offer worldwide (oceanic, polar) service. At this rate, there will be complete
coverage for North America by the end of next year. They intend to broaden
those services as they launch more satellites. 

They're achieving this due to the development of reusable rockets. The last
launch was done on a booster that has been used six times. 

They're initiating beta testing soon with one million users in the US along the
northern states where service will be most reliable with the network they
currently have.

Another difference is the satellite type. The previous services use large,
hulking satellites that require a Titan rocket to launch. That's a 250-400
million dollar launch. The spacex rocket is a 20 million dollar launch and
they're sending 60 blades at a time. Quite a difference.

I'm hoping there's room for telecom. I've been using a satellite phone for over
a year now and it would be nice to have a smaller device. If he can offer
telecom on his satellite internet platform, then I'd be completely happy to
switch.

Daniel Traechin

.... Visit me at gopher://gcpp.world
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