How many billions would it take to create a Starlink competitor?
More practical assuming that Starlink does not go out of business or get destroyed. Giving them the benefit of doubt I assume perhaps incorrectly that a panel of people risk ranked such things. Starlink is a military target and a single point of success. Their first customer was the US Army and the only reason it actually exists at all as Starlink would not be profitable otherwise. A few countries have already been saber-rattling to take them out, no idea how they would do it.
Diversifying into cable, DSL and fiber could mitigate some risk for the government employees working from home. I am biased of course because the deployment of my fiber in a very rural area was partially funded by the US government. Not every ISP will use that money correctly and without fraud. That would be my bigger concern is that someone is validating results and that money won't just end up in executive pockets.
Perhaps Elon can crank out a mini Boring Company machine and save the country $10B?
>More practical assuming that Starlink does not go out of business
SpaceX is a profitable company, and Starlink has over 1.5M customers.
>I am biased of course
Sounds like it.
Agreed, that's why I labelled their threats as saber-rattling. Unrelated to this there are country deadpool bets running on nuclear war ranging from 2024 to 2027 when China is ready and what countries would be hit but I am not participating as there are far too many variables. I'm just stocking up on freeze dried coffee as it appears to be a better investment than metals and would never go to waste.
SpaceX is a profitable company
I did not disagree with this either. It is profitable because their biggest customer is the US Military. There are debates about profitability otherwise and some reports one can find on their burn rates vs income. I did not keep them handy because I do not trust what either side is saying.
It might be more cost effective to service rural customers using Starlink. I know of many people working remotely using it. Some of which have fiber at the road in front of them, running it up to their rural home from the road would still cost tens of thousands out of pocket and opted for Starlink.
If we are all helping pay to deliver internet access to every part of this country, which I wholeheartedly agree with, could we do so in a way that maybe also helps R&D space travel instead of whatever Comcast or Verizon is doing?
I had to trench a quarter mile and it was about $2K it only goes up a little bit with more distance, biggest cost was getting the trencher here on the big rig. For what it's worth that trenching would have been free had I requested the service when the government grant was issued to the ISP as it also covered trenching. I waited too long and it snowed which pushed me outside of that window. That was entirely my fault.
I would have preferred a program where in rural counties the up front cost of acquiring the $599 kit can be claimed as a tax credit.
In the FCC press release above,
> Collectively, these companies are committing to deploy broadband service of at least 100/20 Mbps service to over 700,000 locations and to maintain or improve existing 100/20 Mbps service to approximately 2 million locations in 44 states across the United States.
That is Starlink bandwidth and that 18B would pay for 30M install kits instead of just 2.7M homes.
A Starlink satellite will deorbit on it's own, is quite delicate.
That said, perhaps that's where most of that $18B is going to go...digging trenches.