[vonklaus]

I think it is a lot more about providing communications to mars. They are basically doing a/b testing on earth for blanketing a planet in communication. Also, they could connect that network to mars to have interplanetary communication over something that resembles the internet. Tesla can lease bandwith (or have their users lease bandwith) much easier and cheaper than launching a fully fledged system like this

[dpods13]

How is this a/b testing?

[TeMPOraL]

Well, this is not exactly A/B testing (maybe a pilot program would be a better term), but as for the rest of your comment - I recall Musk saying something about Mars lacking Internet and him wanting to put it there.