In the 7 years living here our LTE internet plans have literally gotten twice as expensive: with plans going from 100GB total bandwidth up/down for ~$165CAD (after tax) to 50GB total bandwidth up/down for the same price.
During that time I've seen nothing but empty promises and talk by political parties and telecoms. Apparently they're spending millions and doing something, but I haven't seen any results other than taxes going up, and data plans shrinking.
In that same time period Space-X and Starlink have literally redesigned space flight and created an entirely new telecom paradigm.
I only hope Starlink starts to offer home phone service in addition to internet to further erode the market of incumbents here in Canada.
As much as I wish everyone in the globe a beautiful unblemished view of the night sky, a couple of thoughts:
(IANAA - I am not an astronomer)
* Light pollution in cities already affects the majority of the global population.
* There are already satellites in the night sky. It seems like a slippery slope of drawing a line when it becomes a problem.
* Astronomy for cutting edge R&D/exploration already seem to be limited by terrestrial astronomy - islands in the pacific are denying access to culturally important mountain tops for new telescopes, atmospheric distortion, cloud cover, light pollution from cities
* Isn't the prospect of cheaper commercial spaceflight potentially better for research astronomy? Let's get these telescope platforms into space!
Anyway, as with everything, I suspect military control/government security considerations will end up being the overriding decision making factor governing these sorts of global mega-constellations rather than such noble and pure pursuits as preserving the nights sky.