horsemagicians t1_iuadw3r wrote
Reply to comment by proper_ikea_boy in Amazon may have to turn to SpaceX for help launching its Starlink rival service by Soupjoe5
Why do they have to be orbital? And you charge people for use of your internet service just like every business ever.
seanflyon t1_iuaj2ma wrote
Satellites have to be orbital to stay up. What kind of non-orbital internet service are you thinking of? Running cables on the ground certainly works.
Shrike99 t1_iubr474 wrote
>Why do they have to be orbital
Because suborbital satellites tend to have lifespans on the order of minutes. Having to replace your entire satellite fleet on a bi-hourly basis is a very, very poor business case.
>And you charge people for use of your internet service just like every business ever.
That works if you have a monopoly, but not in a world in which competition exists.
If it costs you ten times as much to launch a comparable satellite constellation to your competitor, then you need to charge each person ten times as much, or subscribe ten times as many users which means 1/10th the bandwidth per user, or some combination thereof.
Either way, the consumer gets a worse deal, so why would they purchase your service as opposed to your cheaper and faster competitor's?
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