Starlink's been out of public beta for a while. But the customer experience isn't getting better—it's _worse_.Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/...
Americans deploy fiber optic with :brrrrrrrrrrrr: challenge impossible
If their 4,400 satellites can only service 400k consumers (and not very large ones at that), only stationary, given their 5 year lifespan at a cost of 400,000 per satellite (optimistic, doesn't include launch price), assuming all the rest of the infra is free, no opex, that's going to be about 1000$/year/customer in costs only in capex....
Meanwhile, a fiber optic install that services 20,000 people only costs about $300/customer to install and maybe $5-10/month per customer to maintain in the worst case (like aerial installs in tornado alley).
But right now a huge amount of new build is being done with horizontal directional drilling which has a higher upfront cost, but lower long term maintenance cost.
You can also run OLT/AON networks on fiber infrastructure and have multiple ISPs using the same backbones so it could be a good setup for breaking some of the monopoly that Comcast, Charter, and AT&T hold right now.
The thing that's really helping get fiber built out everywhere right now is the insanely cheap hardware cost. China is rocketing ahead on fiber build out and as a side effect, their factories are capable of supplying the global market with cabling and terminals at like 10x lower cost than even a few years ago.
Couple that with the infrastructure bill giving something like $60B to any ISP that builds out new fiber and you have a recipe for tons of new build where the monopolies don't even have to eat that $300/customer cost and actually walk away with a profit for just paying a subcontractor to build out a network.
Given neoliberal capitalism's track record with private bailouts though, a huge amount of this new proposed build will be shoddy or just never actually finished as the big guys pay out massive dividends to shareholders and do stock buyback while they find ways to cash in on the stimulus without actually doing any capital expenditure.
The good news is that we're in a huge rush to build out new backbones (I'm working on one that goes up the Mississippi river from Louisiana to Missouri and will service something like 1million homes directly with fiber). And that's just one of the several projects we're working on. We're also a small ass team of 8, who knows how much build out the bigger firms are doing.
If their 4,400 satellites can only service 400k consumers (and not very large ones at that), only stationary, given their 5 year lifespan at a cost of 400,000 per satellite (optimistic, doesn't include launch price), assuming all the rest of the infra is free, no opex, that's going to be about 1000$/year/customer in costs only in capex....
Yikes!
Meanwhile there are satellite internet companies with 3 sats and consistant, speedy performance.
The only issue with a lot of satellite internet is that they're higher up so the ping is super long and you cant be a :freeze-gamer:
No loss to the world then.
those have insane latencies though (>400ms) but yea way more sustainable than Starlink
Mmmm but nothing beyond online games and webapps make use of that right?
everything will load slower and latency sensitive apps like video/audio conferencing may not work right.
edit: also satellite internet has very small data caps
Oh no I can't make my meeting :) The data caps are bs though.
Meanwhile, a fiber optic install that services 20,000 people only costs about $300/customer to install and maybe $5-10/month per customer to maintain in the worst case (like aerial installs in tornado alley).
But right now a huge amount of new build is being done with horizontal directional drilling which has a higher upfront cost, but lower long term maintenance cost.
You can also run OLT/AON networks on fiber infrastructure and have multiple ISPs using the same backbones so it could be a good setup for breaking some of the monopoly that Comcast, Charter, and AT&T hold right now.
The thing that's really helping get fiber built out everywhere right now is the insanely cheap hardware cost. China is rocketing ahead on fiber build out and as a side effect, their factories are capable of supplying the global market with cabling and terminals at like 10x lower cost than even a few years ago.
Couple that with the infrastructure bill giving something like $60B to any ISP that builds out new fiber and you have a recipe for tons of new build where the monopolies don't even have to eat that $300/customer cost and actually walk away with a profit for just paying a subcontractor to build out a network.
Given neoliberal capitalism's track record with private bailouts though, a huge amount of this new proposed build will be shoddy or just never actually finished as the big guys pay out massive dividends to shareholders and do stock buyback while they find ways to cash in on the stimulus without actually doing any capital expenditure.
The good news is that we're in a huge rush to build out new backbones (I'm working on one that goes up the Mississippi river from Louisiana to Missouri and will service something like 1million homes directly with fiber). And that's just one of the several projects we're working on. We're also a small ass team of 8, who knows how much build out the bigger firms are doing.