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by ctheb 2190 days ago
The remote areas you refer to are a small fraction of the population compared to the GTA (greater Toronto area.) Should a highly visible revenue-oriented corporation really aim to improve connectivity out in the boonies?
3 comments

> Should a highly visible revenue-oriented corporation really aim to improve connectivity out in the boonies?

The target market for Starlink -- according to Musk -- is "the 3% to 4% of the population who are hardest to reach through terrestrial networks".

So yes, "the boonies" are the market. Almost no one reading this is in that market.

It seems self evident to me that the intended customers can't be urban, suburban or even exurban residences; the satellites won't be able to serve a large population of closely spaced transceivers.

Sure, if the service is likely to be most effective in areas with low population density, there is little competition for those customers, there is little marginal cost associated with making their service available to rural customers, and serving rural customers does not preclude them from serving urban customers as well.
>Should a highly visible revenue-oriented corporation really aim to improve connectivity out in the boonies?

That's the only place the service will function, unless you're using it in a park or field somewhere in the GTA... so yeah I guess.

It'll also function just fine on your roof - the issue with population density is just that bandwidth is limited per area, and so there's much lower bandwidth per person in metro areas.
>It'll also function just fine on your roof

Assuming your roof is the same height or higher than nearby roofs and other obstructions.