Comment by lxgr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lxgr | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

There is such a thing as an overcrowded market, but LEO data connectivity is definitely not it yet.

- Nobody other than Starlink is offering anything at all to end customers; all alternatives are in GEO, which means much higher latencies.

- There's no alternative to Iridium when it comes to reliable, 100% global coverage in the L-band (except if you're the military, presumably). Planes and ships are still carrying HF radios for redundancy in high latitudes.

- Nobody, neither GEO nor LEO, other than Starlink, currently offers high-throughput connectivity for in-flight connectivity. (Inmarsat is planning to launch HEO satellites for the northern hemisphere, which will possibly extend their existing aviation coverage there.)

- OneWeb does compete for high-throughput services in LEO in the Ku-band (requiring steered antennas just like Starlink), but doesn't seem to be offering inter-satellite links yet, i.e. no global coverage alternative for airlines either.

Isn't LEO _literally_ crowded? I thought space junk was a real concern at this point, and a bunch of other crappy LEO satellite launches will exacerbate this

https://www.nasa.gov/headquarters/library/find/bibliographie...

In terms of satellites, yes, very.

In terms of independent operators, not so much. If Starlink goes down or ceases operations in a given region or to a given customer, there are few alternatives right now.

Crowded? No. Littered? Perhaps, depending on the altitude. The article you linked says the bulk of the existing debris is from a few isolated incidents.

These satellites are generally low enough tha their orbits decay after a couple years if they don't boost themselves, and then they burn up in the atmosphere.

Space junk is actually much _less_ of a concern in LEO because it's low enough that stuff de-orbits on it's own relatively quickly, so you don't get the long term accumulation that you can get in higher orbits

u/lxgr was referring to the business being crowded/not-crowded, not LEO itself.

There is also Starlink direct-to-cell where regular phone can use LTE with satellites from anywhere. It looks like there are two other companies working on same technology.

I wonder if there is a market for worldwide coverage with fast data without the capacity for broadband users. That would lower the number and capacity of satellites.

Alternatively, it might be possible to do broadband with larger but fewer satellites instead of Starlink strategy of increasing capacity with more satellites. Other companies could save money by not having laser links and only do bent pipe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com