I wonder how hard it will be to scale up the whole constellation to a higher speed. Say 10 years from now, the constellation is set, but the average internet speed has gone up considerably. Will these companies need to launch newer satellites, or is there any bottleneck (e.g. ground infrastructure) that they can keep upgrading without new launch?
Hi Brian, thanks for the question! It's a great point and as you said, it depends where the bottleneck is. If the satellite hardware is capable of handling higher bandwidths and can be improved with software updates, then the constellation can be upgraded with only software improvements. I suspect the satellite hardware is a limiting factor in bandwidth and so in order to significantly improve the speeds, the companies will likely need to launch newer generations of satellites.
Very informative article, Ian. Question: What level of government support/cooperation is required for all of this to happen? For example, are additional frequency allocations from the FCC required? If so, will it be an auction process and could this materially alter the economic model? Are there other ways in which in which the government or other powerful third-parties might alter how all of this rolls out?
Thanks for the comment! Acquiring the necessary spectrum is a huge part of developing a competitive satellite internet service, sometimes even considered the most important part. In fact when OneWeb went bankrupt, its spectrum was considered its most valuable asset. Beyond that, some governments are taking an interest in supporting these programs in order to bring more of their populations online. For example in early 2021 the FCC offered $9.2B in subsidies to ISP's to build broadband infrastructure for rural communities and SpaceX won about $900M of that funding for their Starlink program.
Interesting and well-written article. The social impact possible with this scale of internet provision, especially to rural, previously unreachable areas makes me thrilled and hopeful for future good!
Thanks for the comment Jordan! Agree with that sentiment and I hope the services can be made affordable and broadly accessible to underserved communities!
I wonder how hard it will be to scale up the whole constellation to a higher speed. Say 10 years from now, the constellation is set, but the average internet speed has gone up considerably. Will these companies need to launch newer satellites, or is there any bottleneck (e.g. ground infrastructure) that they can keep upgrading without new launch?
Hi Brian, thanks for the question! It's a great point and as you said, it depends where the bottleneck is. If the satellite hardware is capable of handling higher bandwidths and can be improved with software updates, then the constellation can be upgraded with only software improvements. I suspect the satellite hardware is a limiting factor in bandwidth and so in order to significantly improve the speeds, the companies will likely need to launch newer generations of satellites.
Very informative article, Ian. Question: What level of government support/cooperation is required for all of this to happen? For example, are additional frequency allocations from the FCC required? If so, will it be an auction process and could this materially alter the economic model? Are there other ways in which in which the government or other powerful third-parties might alter how all of this rolls out?
Thanks for the comment! Acquiring the necessary spectrum is a huge part of developing a competitive satellite internet service, sometimes even considered the most important part. In fact when OneWeb went bankrupt, its spectrum was considered its most valuable asset. Beyond that, some governments are taking an interest in supporting these programs in order to bring more of their populations online. For example in early 2021 the FCC offered $9.2B in subsidies to ISP's to build broadband infrastructure for rural communities and SpaceX won about $900M of that funding for their Starlink program.
Interesting and well-written article. The social impact possible with this scale of internet provision, especially to rural, previously unreachable areas makes me thrilled and hopeful for future good!
Thanks for the comment Jordan! Agree with that sentiment and I hope the services can be made affordable and broadly accessible to underserved communities!