alwaysdoit parent
It also raises the baseline across the board by injecting a new competitor to every ISP and wireless service in the world
This is 1000% my point. There is now a baseline amount of signal per KM. That signal is now the same everywhere. It will be (about) the same speed everywhere.
This is really great for more rural areas and over the ocean.
That's not how it works. There are intentionally launching satellites at different inclinations so that they can cover more densely populated areas with more bandwidth. The speed and capacity is absolutely not uniform over the entire globe.
We already had a baseline amount from geosynchronous and Iridium. This is increasing bandwidth and reducing latency, but is not establishing the first baseline.
Gah - I got so caught up in this thread. Finally something I know a fair bit about.
Yes, there is a baseline. But that's like saying dail-up is a baseline. Everyone might have it but it doesn't give people access to the modern web.
Geo, can be great in some services but it's again not a blanket. They have broad beams but they're moving to spot beams instead and those beams don't move.
This constellation is really going to be the same bandwidth capacity across the globe within a given altitude band. Which is awesome.