Elon Musk’s Starlink is about to disrupt the Internet service industry in a good way. It utilizes low to very
low earth orbit systems with nearly 12,000 satellites initially and to be expanded to have mind boggling
42,000 satellites for Ku, Ka, V-band services with optical inter-satellite communications.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/01/20/spacex-sets-new-rocket-reuse-records-with-successful-starlink-launch/
Why do we think this will succeed after Iridium, Global Star, and other similar ventures failed as business?
In a few words it is the quality of the service at low cost. The test runs show the service to be
comparable to the fiber optics. The success factors include the vertical integration of the low cost
launch and scaled-up satellite manufacturing efficiency that is unlike any other company ever achieved.
It remains to be seen how some service quality degradation during rainy seasons will be addressed.
