[db48x]

You consider a few thousand satellites hundreds of miles above the surface of the earth to be litter, but the existing network of cables is beneath your notice? The internet is a web of copper, plastic, and glass that literally touches every place on Earth. It’s like a fungus that grows beneath our feet and over our heads.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

That buried cable has decades of service life and doesn't require tons of rocket fuel to put it where it is useful.

[db48x]

I think you might be surprised just how many electronic devices have to be installed along that cable for it to function. All of those devices have to be replaced regularly. If you keep your eyes open, you can see them all over the city you live in. Big grey metal cabinets on every block, some of them under a metal cover that hundreds of people walk over every day without a second thought, others disguised with artwork. Anonymous concrete buildings scattered all over, some of them disguised as houses or businesses. Some of this infrastructure is needed for each customer, and some of it needed per mile. Rural customers need a lot more of the latter type. And all of it is delivered and installed using gasoline or diesel. And it all has to be replaced far more often than the cables themselves. The modem you have in your house is functionally obsolete after just a few years, and will probably never be reused. The rest of the infrastructure will be replaced on the same timescale as well.

There is a reason why rural customers have such a hard time getting decent internet service, and why satellite internet is more economical for them. It’s not immediately obvious to me that the infrastructure cost of Starlink service is larger than the cost of your cable service. You cannot condemn satellite internet services simply because they use a lot of satellites without also condemning terrestrial internet services.

And if it is at all worthwhile for you to have fast internet access in the city, then it is equally worthwhile for folk living in rural areas to have fast internet access too.

[dgan]

Ah great argument. "Look there is so much trash in this world, let me add even more trash"