[daedalus_j]

There's a lot of customers still to be served, especially once you have laser-comm interlink between the satellites. Currently a user has to have a view of a satellite that has a view of a ground-downlink station. Once that limitation is gone it opens up lots of things, like middle of the ocean airplane links, etc.

Plus with laser interconnects they can actually beat fiber optic speed for cross-continent or cross-ocean back haul. (speed of light in vaccum, with fewer switches)

There's a lot of use-cases. I bet on them being able to make money long term.

[solarkraft]

> Plus with laser interconnects they can actually beat fiber optic speed for cross-continent or cross-ocean back haul. (speed of light in vaccum, with fewer switches)

This sounds boring at first - I don't think any consumer really needs that. But high frequency traders will probably pay quite a lot for it.

[Kirby64]

High frequency traders don't need this, they colocate at the actual exchange. Going up to space and back is already way more latency than they current have.

What it does do, however, is cut latency across the globe... which can be meaningful for any real time communication. Stuff like voice chat or video calls has meaningful latency if you're going across continents. If that's shaved down even marginally it has a meaningful impact on the user experience.

[matthewdgreen]

I have no doubt they'll find users. I'm just wondering at what point usage runs into spectrum limits.