SpaceX - Satellite internet starting 2019

This is a boon for developing nations, those who don't have the infrastructure to bring Internet to their schools and community centers.

The United States has no excuse but our own greed for lack of broadband Internet being available in every nook and cranny of the Republic.

Yes, even remote campgrounds deep in Southern Utah or the mountains of West Virginia have plentiful fiber optic cable within a mile at the most. The problem is that fiber is dark, and the company that owns it has no interest in making it available until the right grant package or other highly profitable opportunity comes along.

Satellite Internet won't help us here in the states.

Well if approved they'll start launching in 2019. Boo. Full function by 2024. Yay! Hope I'm around to try it...

GordonThree wrote:
This is a boon for developing nations, those who don't have the infrastructure to bring Internet to their schools and community centers.

The United States has no excuse but our own greed for lack of broadband Internet being available in every nook and cranny of the Republic.

Yes, even remote campgrounds deep in Southern Utah or the mountains of West Virginia have plentiful fiber optic cable within a mile at the most. The problem is that fiber is dark, and the company that owns it has no interest in making it available until the right grant package or other highly profitable opportunity comes along.

Satellite Internet won't help us here in the states.

Of course it will help us in the states. My brother lives here along the wasatch front and is 200 feet too far from the comcast box and they won't run it. He uses a slow wireless connection now. If he can get fiber speed internet from a satellite, he'd be a very happy camper. I have a brother-in-law in southern Utah that would kill for a better solution than the single cable provider.

Now, take a few of those campgrounds that are remote or all these people here that are using mifi with verizon and give them a satellite option.

If it is affordable (even at the CG level) and fast, it's a big deal.

That's OK if you have no other choice.
We have it up here but I passed, it's cheaper on cell

https://www.xplornet.com/why-choose-xplornet/

kohai wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
This is a boon for developing nations, those who don't have the infrastructure to bring Internet to their schools and community centers.

The United States has no excuse but our own greed for lack of broadband Internet being available in every nook and cranny of the Republic.

Yes, even remote campgrounds deep in Southern Utah or the mountains of West Virginia have plentiful fiber optic cable within a mile at the most. The problem is that fiber is dark, and the company that owns it has no interest in making it available until the right grant package or other highly profitable opportunity comes along.

Satellite Internet won't help us here in the states.

Of course it will help us in the states. My brother lives here along the wasatch front and is 200 feet too far from the comcast box and they won't run it. He uses a slow wireless connection now. If he can get fiber speed internet from a satellite, he'd be a very happy camper. I have a brother-in-law in southern Utah that would kill for a better solution than the single cable provider.

Now, take a few of those campgrounds that are remote or all these people here that are using mifi with verizon and give them a satellite option.

If it is affordable (even at the CG level) and fast, it's a big deal.

Satellite Internet is already available in the states.

Elon's satellite won't really be any faster. Advanced spot beams will focus bandwidth but they can't help with the more than 40,000 mile round trip.

In your brothers case, his problem is territory agreements. If Comcast were forced by having to compete with six other providers operating over some of that dark fiber, Comcast would find a way to deliver product.

kohai wrote:
SpaceX - Satellite internet starting 2019

RV parks shouldn't have any reason not to supply awesome internet, maybe?

The latency on any satellite service will drive most users crazy. And you can't defeat it because the speed of light is a law than cannot be disobeyed. If it doesn't require large dishes and powerful transmitters, it will be yet another system the end user can opt into and remove the RV Park, Coffee shop and other hotspots from the equation. If it requires big equipment, why should a park invest? You will still have the problems associated with providing wifi over several acres and will add the satellite latency issue to the list of other problems.

The article says the sats will be in low-earth orbit.

2oldman wrote:
The article says the sats will be in low-earth orbit.

So Elon is planning to one-up the Iridium constellation?

I still don't get it, this is going to cost him hundreds of billions and decades of work to build. Why not throw that war chest against AT&T and Comcast who own millions of miles on unlit fiber crisscrossing the Nation. Lobby the government to federalize utility right of way access, instead of making every county, township and village a special snowflake who gets to control the monopoly of their road-side shoulders.

As rich as Google is, even they are backing down on the fight... They've massively scaled back their efforts to deploy broadband in part because the local government stranglehold on right of way access.

Space-X has already started launching these satellites, can't get here fast enough IMHO......those of you thinking the service will be the same as existing satellite systems should read the article before you comment.

I heard about this system some time ago, glad to see it's being deployed.

Yeah this and the ATT fixed antenna deal should help out a lot.

I live 2 miles from a town of 25K people. 30 Miles from the state capital, and 30 miles from a metropolitan area of over 1M people, half way between those 2, and I cannot get wired internet at my house.