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Comment by klardotsh | Hacker News Reader

Alas, SL for RV is going to be my primary source of internet while sailing around this summer, so I'm stuck with it even at the new $150/mo nonsense. There's no competition in the space.

My longer-term dream is to build a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, and unfortunately that implies that I'll be paying some near-monopoly entity this sum of money long-term, unless internet access is somehow nationalized (which I presume will never happen in my lifetime here in the US).

Sigh.

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Starlink has coverage in Alaska now doesn't it? I'm essentially on the same page as you.

It’s insane that the U.S. government are squandering this opportunity to force Starlink to provide internet to those without any other access at say 50$/mo. The government is giving the okay to deploy thousands of satellites and start a monopoly and in return we can’t ask for this basic right?

Paid for by whom exactly? What opportunity are they "squandering"? SpaceX (along with investors) are footing the bill for building out this service. If you suddenly kneecap them and say they can't provide it for more than $50/month who will pay the bill? If the US government were to try it and pass such a law without payment to SpaceX, SpaceX would sue them in court and easily win. You can't steal value away and not offer compensation.

The fact that corporations are considered 'people' when it comes to political donations is one major reason that policy no longer responds to the will of the people in the US.

Citizens United bkgd: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citi...

Before Starlink, buying anything even remotely comparable like VSAT was $10,000-20,000 per month.

The idea that you would punish a company for reducing the cost, and improving the performance of a technology an order of magnitude seems kind of ridiculous to me. If this attitude is really widespread throughout the world it’s no surprise why the US takes such a lead in tech innovation.

They are not a monopoly. Anyone can do the same. I believe two other companies are also launching Internet satellite services.

They are launching, but right now Starlink is a monopoly.

There’s no other constellation in orbit that comes close in latency or bandwidth capabilities.

Hopefully the upcoming constellations are successful and there’s more competition in this space. It really is world-changing stuff.

OT, but it’s possible the current price hikes aren’t due to full cells, but ground stations at capacity. I’ve seen upgraded and additional ground stations referenced. They serve very large geographic areas compared to a single “cell.”

The word monopoly doesn’t mean “Only one company makes the best product”. It means that a company completely corners a market and uses its position to prevent others from competing.

There are plenty of space launch providers. There are plenty of other constellations (OneWeb, Iridium, etc). In fact, ironically, SpaceX is doing the opposite of what a monopoly would do and selling the competition cheap tickets on their own launch vehicles. It would be the equivalent of Apple letting Samsung sell phones in an Apple Store.

But AFAIK, those other constellations still aren’t targeting consumers(?)

I should have clarified, but from a consumer standpoint, I think there’s still only one real choice at the moment.

cool well go do it then.

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