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The biggest issue to me concerns the will of people to distribute other existing methods. For example, establishing fiber, transoceanic as well as transcontinental around the globe. Proper fiber rollout would take longer, but should have started ten years ago. It would consume less energy per Tb of transmission, particularly over its lifetime. The problem is the overcoming the will to do the work, plus the geopolitics. Vast sections of the rural US still lack usable broadband to this day. Right here in the USA, where large swaths of RF licenses are held by the large cellular carriers, but have never been rolled out. SpaceX is going to address those communities, as well as communities in other nations, in ways that traditional telecom has completely ignored. I grew up and lived rural until I was nearly thirty. I still have family living rural with completely unmet internet wants. It is shameful that in this day and age, in the USA, we have such huge regions in need of basic internet access. In addition, satellite service opens up internet in ways that bypasses local governmental control. I am not saying it is the best solution, by any stretch, but the reality is, we as a nation, and we as a planet, could have short circuited satellite based internet service by properly funding and building out internet infrastructure over the last ten to fifteen years. The technology certainly already existed, but we lacked the commitment, we lacked the will. And that left a technology void that had to be filled. We have ourselves to blame. |