[petterroea]

Starlink has its uses, but I really don't understand those who get starlink while living in built-up areas.

Starlink is just a re-skin of the "Wireless optic" thing a lot of ISPs are pushing because they would prefer not having to lay cables and instead have everyone use 5g routers. Of course, the service isn't comparable, but regular people don't necessarily know it. Fiberoptic is still king, and probably will be for a long time.

There's nothing comparable to direct fiberoptic cable, and anyone who says otherwise immediately outs themselves as being a sellout or having anti-consumer motives. In 100 years it may be different, but I'm probably not going to be around in 100 years, so...

[holoduke]

For war it is. Drones and other unmanned aircraft are the future of warfare. That's the whole reason why every country now heavily invests in low orbit sats. It's not about consumers. Also not for spacex. Defence contracts are zillion times more worth. Once you are in you reach the end level as a business.

[GCUMstlyHarmls]

Didn't we just see that wired drones are the current peak over wireless, and Russia is at this moment jamming satellite drone control...

[nradov]

Russia has attempted to jam Starlink satellites but with very limited success. The problem for Russia is that the constellation is enormous and uses highly directional phased-array radios which are naturally resistant to jamming. They can temporarily jam a few birds over a limited area but don't have the resources to effect sustained denial. We might eventually see them escalate to kinetic strikes on the satellites.

[petterroea]

You are right about drones, but Starlink etc is still used a lot by forward deployments of troops. Afaik it has revolutionised the ability to contact these deployments. But I'm not an army guy

[rsynnott]

I don’t see why it would be different in 100 years. The fibre might be slightly better (hollow core fibre will increase speed from 2/3c to nearly c), but, absent new physics, it’s hard to imagine anything beating _that_.

Maybe neutrino comms for long distance? :)

[petterroea]

I remember 10-15 years ago The Gathering, Norways biggest LAN party, had a wifi sponsor, and there were talks about how soon we don't even need wired internet, because wifi is getting so good with wifi 6 and all. Crazy thing to claim about a sports hall with 5000 computers and even more mobile devices.

I can't say we are much closer to that goal now :)

[inemesitaffia]

Starlink has more suburban and urban users because there are lots of enclaves without service, reliable service or unlimited service.

[petterroea]

Most people I talk to who use starlink in an urban setting are not in such a situation, they are just using it because "satelite internet cool"