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Comment by voisin | Hacker News Reader

> In addition to getting the satellites in orbit, SpaceX will need to build a vast system of ground stations and affordable user terminals if it is going to connect consumers directly to its network.

Why are ground stations required? I thought you were connecting from your dish to the satellite and therefore could be anywhere with a view of the sky.

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There is currently no satellite to satellite communication with the first iteration of the technology. This means you need ground stations to receive the traffic coming from the user terminals. This can either hooked up directly to the internet backbone (ideal), or bounce to another satellite closer to the backbone connection.

Basically, user computer <--> user wifi or router <--> user terminal <--> satellite <--> ground station <--> fiber <--> peering to other internet providers.

Thank you!

There are two kinds of ground stations: the one at your home/business (the modem/"pizza-box antenna") and the ground stations that connect the satellites to the trunk lines/backbone.

The ground stations will have very fast fiber connections to the greater internet for the satellite network. The user terminals will connect to dishes / antenna at peoples houses, like directv

The ground stations tie the satellite network into the internet. Once they have the inter-satellite laser links operational, they will be able to get by with many fewer ground stations.

You might find Mark Handley's visualization illuminating: https://youtu.be/m05abdGSOxY

Thank you!

Eventually you'll want to talk to a computer that isn't directly connected to starlink. The ground stations are necessary to bridge that gap (and run the constellation)

You typed "the same satellite you are connected on" wrong. Starlink satellites don't talk to one another at this point.

My cable provider is Mediacom and their advertising used to say how much better than Dish they were.

But hidden from view behind their main building a bunch of satellite dishes. =)

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