[nordsieck]

The issue is, there just aren't that many satellites in orbit. 7000 (for SpaceX, less for other networks) for the globe means that only a few connections over a particular geographical area end up causing serious congestion.

SpaceX is pushing hard to address this - they'll probably end up launching ~135 times this year, and are aiming for more than 180 times next year[2], most of which will be Starlink. But no matter how many satellites are in orbit, there just won't be the bandwidth to service dense urban areas.

The reason that cell phones work is because there are so many cell towers. And, those towers have a density that correlates with demand.

The problem with LEO satellites is, they have to evenly cover the Earth[1]. Which means that a level of service sufficient for a dense urban area would mean that rest of the world would be ridiculously over provisioned.

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1. It's more complicated than that. Specifically, providers can use inclination to limit orbits to mid latitudes. But that only helps so much.

2. These numbers may not mean much to you, but they are absurd compared to pre-SpaceX years. SpaceX is doing more launches in a year than most rockets do in their entire lifetimes. A normal year for a SpaceX competitor like ULA is 4-10 launches, although those companies are also aiming to ramp up as Starlink competitors like Kuiper demand more launch volume.