Elon Musk’s proposed Starlink laser-linked high-speed internet satellite project showing the shortest path in the network between New York and London.
Ross writes:
How is it costing 3bn to get broadband throughout Ireland when Elon Musk can give the entire planet high speed internet for an estimated 10bn?
Anyone?
Elon Musk just revealed new details about Starlink. Here’s how it might work (BusinessInsider)
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SpaceX is scheduled to launch 60 test satellites for Starlink next week. Ultimately, it will launch up to 12,000 satellites in low- and mid-earth orbits to provide a world-wide, low-cost, high-speed internet service. In due course, firms like Amazon, Google, OneWeb (Airbus, Richard Branson) and others are likely to launch competing services. Meantime, the proponents of the National Broadband Plan are suffering from “marketing myopia” (business studies 101) and locked into an exclusively fibre-based solution costing billions to supply to maybe 200,000 rural subscribers by 2027. Go figure!.
How long will those satellites remain in orbit? They are in a low orbit and will eventually fall to earth. According to this[1], they would last about 5 years.
Hugh Lewis is a professor at the University of Southampton and the representative of the UK Space Agency on the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. As he indicated in a recent interview with New Scientist, “To maintain just 4425, you’re going to be launching that number every five years.”
Fibre will last a lot longer.
[1] https://www.universetoday.com/140539/spacex-gives-more-details-on-how-their-starlink-internet-service-will-work-less-satellites-lower-orbit-shorter-transmission-times-shorter-lifespans/
Cos …. Ireland
Yes, they wont last as long as high-orbit sats but as launch costs fall they can be easily replaced. Another problem would be the danger of collisions with other sats etc. as more of them are launched. Not reasons for not going ahead with a potentially transformative new tech.
That’s a shed load of satellites but if it works it will transform connectivity.
“How is it costing 3bn to get broadband throughout Ireland when Elon Musk can give the entire planet high speed internet for an estimated 10bn?”
Answer: It can’t. Elon Musk is very good at grand statements and self publicity without actually following through.
But its more a question of cost. How have they not thought of a better way to get broadband to the bog other than with fibre optics. Its absolutely ludicrous. Sure most people have a 4G coverage down there. Can they not pump money into a mobile alternative rather than having to dig up the roads.
“Sure most people have a 4G coverage down there. ”
Do they? is that a fact or a guess?
Its a factual guesstimation.
Here you see the actual coverage. Not great.
https://coveragemap.comreg.ie/map
I have travelled a few rough road surfaces in a car of questionable suspension lately, mainly because I am a bit of an inverted car snob. All destinations had at least 3G.
If your rural start up business model is based on Skype or such, you really need to move.The Irish tax payer has way more important things to fund- like public hospitals.
Maybe Amazon will beat SpaceX them to it. Jeff Bezos has form for achieving things but SpaceX has a track record of low-cost launches. One way or another LEO sats will become a competitor to fibre just like mobile phone vs landlines. Might take some years but no slower than the NBP.
https://www.space.com/amazon-plans-3236-satellite-constellation-for-internet.html
There’s never mention of how utterly awful satellite internet access is for certain applications
At the moment sat access is poor for VOIP, video calls etc. due to latency arising from fact that the sats are orbiting at 35k kms above earth. The next gen sats will orbit as low as 400 kms. This will virtually eliminate the latency problem. Obviously this will create other problems which SpaceX etc. will be working to overcome over next year or so.
because both figures are lies, but one figure is more of a lie than the other.
Do you think the estimate of 3bn will be the final figure? If the Children’s Hospital is anything to go by…
See Verizon has 1gbps 5G under trial in the US. Wireless technology is advancing at an enormous rate
Fibre to every last home in Ireland is an unnecessary waste.
Sweden spent €6 billion but that was years ago.
Do you know how many kilometres or number of connections involved?
Much, much less IMHO because of 4G improvements, 5G, 6G, LEO satellites etc. while other fibre providers will continually seek more of the low hanging fruit and eventually reach up for higher stuff.
Crazy given the changes in technology likely over next 25 years. Given that internet is only slightly older than this – look at how it has developed. Whole thing is really an election ploy (which has backfired).
Your assertion that the internet is only “slightly older” than 25 years confirms the absolute waffle you are talking with regards satellite latency
OK, I meant age of WWW but show how I’m mistaken in saying a signal takes much less time to travel 500 kms to a LEO sat than 15k km to a GEO sat.
35k, not 15k.