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Is there any company even remotely close to competing with Starlink in the "global satellite ISP" space? I remember reading somewhere that literally most of th
by 2bitencryption 3y ago
Is there any company even remotely close to competing with Starlink in the "global satellite ISP" space?
I remember reading somewhere that literally most of the satellites orbiting earth are Starlink satellites. As in, more than half of all satellites are Starlink.
Obviously that statistic does not mean they have a successful business, that there's enough of a market, etc etc.
But one can imagine the types of services you can supply in just a few years to customers when you have by far the largest satellite constellation in the sky, with global coverage, and the ability to launch dozens of new satellites at low cost.
- hnreport 3y agoIs there any company even remotely close to competing with Starlink in the "global satellite ISP" space? No, or anything similar with SpaceX and Tesla But alas, I’m accused of being a Musk dick rider.
- meepmorp 3y ago> But alas, I’m accused of being a Musk dick rider. The fact that you feel compelled to add this unbidden disclaimer says more than the disclaimer itself.
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- dzhiurgis 3y agoRivian, Lucid and Mercedes if you want to pay 3x for somewhat better build but somewhat worse software. I agree tho long term at lower end there’s just no way anyone can compete (except in cars of anti-software or anti-feature).
- FireBeyond 3y ago> for somewhat better build Somewhat? The build quality of a Tesla, even a Model S, resembles that of a Corolla at best. The dash creaks, there's unexplained rattles, the wind howls if things aren't sealed properly, and if you try to address anything with a Service Center you often get told 1) they can't find it, or 2) they found it, but it's "within spec".
- dzhiurgis 3y agoI'm more of referring to materials, although later generation (Y and 3) seem to be using softer plastics tho some rattles are still there. I haven't driven Corolla for a while, but compared to decade old Mazda - only real leather is what I miss, else it's like every car 3 decades before. Ultimately you have your choice tho.
- Moldoteck 3y agosome ppl say teslas built in germany have better quality compared to us ones
- Jorge1o1 3y agoRIP AST SpaceMobile
- AshamedCaptain 3y agoBy Itanium effect if anything, because AST at least has actually demonstrated the technology. Musk is just setting up a website and he already hits HN frontpage...
- inemesitaffia 3y agoIf the cash dries up, SpaceX can buy them, Lynk and license tech from Nokia and Ericsson.
- joshuahedlund 3y agoNot sure about overall prospects for successful business, but current revenue is a lot higher than I realized: > The Wall Street Journal reports that Starlink's revenue for 2022 was $1.4 billion, up from $222 million in 2021. It is not known how much profit or loss the division made, but SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in February that Starlink is expected to turn a profit this year. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/spacexs-starlink-generated-14bn-in-revenue-in-2022-company-originally-targeted-12bn/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/spacexs-starlink-...
- Dig1t 3y agoEveryone in my neighborhood pays $120/month for it, myself included. It was an absolute game changer. Honestly I think most people in my neighborhood would pay even more for it. It's so much better than the options it replaced. I don't think many people understand how frustrating it is to live in a slightly rural area without good internet options, so many of these areas have been ignored by normal ISP's for forever.
- inemesitaffia 3y agoConsider that revenue figure doubled as of today. Starlink has grown at minimum 100% YOY
- modeless 3y agoThe most likely competitor is Kuiper but they're way behind. There's also OneWeb but they've had a lot of business issues. They're not selling service direct to consumers AFAIK. China is planning a constellation but I don't know much about it and I would never use an ISP from China in any case. SpaceX's reusable rockets give them kind of an insurmountable launch cost advantage for now, and also for the foreseeable future assuming Starship achieves second stage reusability.
- hef19898 3y ago[flagged]
- stevehawk 3y agoBoth comments that you've made in this story have been horribly off the mark. The reason for reusable rockets is: they're cheaper than non-reusable rockets. As a result, no one can compete with SpaceX's pricing. And that other comment where you implied that SpaceX doesn't have much of a target market only demonstrates that you have no idea what the quality of internet service is outside of metropolitan areas or how many people live in those areas.
- hef19898 3y agoOh, I know quite well how bad internet and mobile coverage can be outside metropolitan areas. All those areas so, well the vast majority, can be supported by terrestrial internet using either 5G or fibre. SpaceX has thus to be cheaper than those terrestrial solutions in order to compete. Markets where satelite based solution are the only option include maritime, desaster areas, aviation and remote areas without inhabitants. Everything else, Starlink competes with, e.g., 5G. Just how competitive Starlink is, nobody outside SpaceX knows for a lack financial data. And since the use of reusable rockets only got traction when SpaceX created in-house demand for them, well, I am sceptical regarding the economic viability of it. As I said, it can be typical Musk goal post moving, a viable business idea or a combination of those two. And by the way, Uber was cheaper than Taxis for a long time by selling a dollar for cents, and the same as Uber SpaceX has access to capital other ISPs just don't have. Doesn't mean SpaceX ia serving a market, remote areas, existing ISP are neglecting for decades by now.
- stagger87 3y agoWhat's your definition of competing? The 2 big satellite internet companies Hughesnet and Viasat both appear to have larger revenues.
- hef19898 3y agoThe question is not if there are competitors in the "satelite ISP" space, but rather how Starlink compares to other ISPs. Reason being that the market where Starlink, or satelite communications in general, have a unique selling point is rather small, especially compared to the global communications market. We'll see, so far I think Starlink is SpaceX's way to keep investor money flowing, valuations high and the point of general profitability (pinky promise) in the future without raising any eye brows.
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- matthewdgreen 3y agoClearly rural broadband has a reasonable market. Focusing specifically on cellular phones: my iPhone lets me send emergency SOS messages via satellite and doesn't use Starlink. This means that at least the "emergency calling when out of cellular range" piece of the market has competitors (and they're cheap enough that Apple can include two years of service in my phone's price.) I'm not sure how big the discretionary texting/calling/browsing-while-out-of-cellular service market is.
- Scoundreller 3y agoI’m hoping the next iPhone “feature” will be to point your phone at the sky and get an iMessage sync. Dunno if there’s enough bandwidth actually available to do that (currently or theoretically). Though iMessage is not graceful with queuing messages when you’re offline. WhatsApp does much better.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoOther providers are in the works, but they don't work as fast as Starlink and don't have their own rockets to launch them in. Which is good. BlueWalker 3, a prototype for a new internet satellite provider, is brighter than 99.8% of all stars visible from Earth. They're planning on launching 70 more of them. There are about 5,000 Starlink satellites and about 8,000 satellites total. For the past few years, the number of satellites has been increasing by 30% every year. Starlink can launch 50 satellites in each Falcon 9, which can fly every week. Eventually Starlink will have about 42,000 satellites in orbit. Other mega satellite networks are being planned which could raise the total to over 400,000 satellites.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoI wonder if someday starlink will be able to animate the Big Dipper by blinking satellites. A giant Pepsi logo or something.
- inemesitaffia 3y agoThere will never be more than 12k sats up at a time
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoNo? They can have many more and plan to. They just have a limited authorization for 12k for the short term.
- inemesitaffia 3y agoThey can have millions, they don't plan to have more than 12k up at the same time. 40k is the estimated cumulative number for the currently planned lifecycle
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- toast0 3y agoIridium and Globalstar are in this space. As I understand it, the cost is much higher, and the data rates are much lower. Hughesnet, Viasat and others offer internet services via satellite from geostationary orbits, and may not offer global coverage; similarish costs, lower data caps (as I understand it), and much higher latency. Mostly targeted for fixed location broadband connectivity, where there's no terrestrial option (because almost all terrestrial options are better in all dimensions)