[jeffbee]

Starlink is nice but does the US not possess an air platform that can loiter while providing mobile phone service? Seems like a useful thing to have for civil defense. Wasn't Project Loon supposedly capable of covering a state-sized area with 4G coverage?

[kylehotchkiss]

We know with certainty that major disasters happen like clockwork every year, but that would decrease the amount we can pay our carriers CEOs and it's not like there's any profit potential from this, carriers don't have SLAs where people impacted by outages are owed anything.

More practically for civil defense, national guard will have their own radios, and the amateur radio guys all said they've been prepping for this role? Have they succeeded in that goal?

[inemesitaffia]

Google replaced loon with starlink and point to point laser tech

[kortilla]

What weird phrasing. Loon just shutdown on its own and did not participate in any of the sat laser development for Starlink.

[inemesitaffia]

Google invested in SpaceX and exited loon at around the same time.

Also at least one of Greg Wylers people at Google working on OneWeb left for Starlink

[inemesitaffia]

The laser tech is a different thing within GoogleX

[jeffbee]

I'm asking why the US doesn't own a blimp with a base station taped to the bottom.

[toast0]

Well, the US doesn't run any phone companies... a bettee question is why don't the telephone companies own or borrow a dirigible to provide emergency services. Hazards of dirigibles in huricane season might be part of it, of course.

[mensetmanusman]

Hurricanes would blow it away

[shrubble]

That would require the government to be innovative.