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Regulators Are Ignoring How Low Orbit Satellite Broadband Is Trashing The Night Sky

Regulators Are Ignoring How Low Orbit Satellite Broadband Is Trashing The Night Sky

3 years ago
Anonymous $qOHwDUKgAF

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200812/09274245099/regulators-are-ignoring-how-low-orbit-satellite-broadband-is-trashing-night-sky.shtml

As previously noted, Space X, Amazon, and others are pushing harder than ever into the low-orbit satellite broadband game. The industry, pockmarked by a long road of failures, involves firing thousands of smaller, cheaper, lower orbit satellite constellations into space to help supplement existing broadband services. The lower orbit means that LO satellite service will offer lower-latency broadband than traditional satellite offerings, which for 15 years or so have been widely maligned as expensive, slow, "laggy," with annoying monthly caps.

And while these services should absolutely help bring some additional options to rural Americans, nautical ventures, and those out of range of traditional service, folks shouldn't get their hopes up in terms of broader disruption of the uncompetitive U.S. telecom market. The physics involved in satellite transmission means there will always be limited capacity and odd throttling and network management restrictions, meaning it won't really make much headway in highly monopolized major metro areas. In short, the tech is absolutely a positive advancement, but it's not going to be the game changer many think.