But if it does, how do we stop it becoming a monopoly? We don't need and can't have multiple rival fleets of satellites up there. But if it's just Starlink then how do we stop it charging more and more for less and less because no-one else is threatening it?
If it works, should the UN step in and take over the network as a service to all of humanity?
The technical aspects of it seem to be:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/space...
EDIT:OneWeb operates at higher altitudes where if there's a failure, the satellite will stay there for hundreds of years, but to try to mitigate that a bit, they added a grappling fixture/fiducial to try to make it easier for a robotic deorbiting craft to capture it.
The Oneweb stuff not so much, but at least they're thinking about it.
You claim to be against monopolies but are unwilling to tolerate even the slight inconvenience of seeing scooters parked around? I personally love them for their amazing convenience and they're also incredibly compact relative to cars or even bikes.
> If the business plan doesn't work out, who cleans up the satellites?
Cleaning up is essentially free as long as the satellites are still operational: just command them to deorbit. Orbits are low enough that the fuel required to deorbit is comparable to a few months of station-keeping.
They were a great novelty for a while. But I got over them.
So if a satellite stops responding to commands, they're going to go get it? To make sure it doesn't hit anything else and cause more problems?
If I were to pick a second place it would be IEEE. I don't think it would be a good idea to hand it to W3C, as this is at a layer+ lower than they would typically operate.