SpaceX is set to launch its first two test satellites on Sunday

Re:SpaceX is set to launch its first two test satellites on ... by stcredzero on Saturday February 17, 2018 @02:22PM (#16402234)

It's hard to argue that from an economics perspective this isn't an insane leapfrog type of event, assuming they can gather the necessary in-house chops to deliver good telecom service. Talk about an economic moat -- to compete on margin you'd first have to become a rocket company. And not just a rocket company but one who has technology to re-use rockets, which likely is a ways away from becoming replicated, nevermind commoditized to the point where it evaporates from costs.

It's even steeper than that. SpaceX could arrange to send up some payloads piggybacked on their commercial payloads. Their competitors could effectively be paying to put part of their fleet up.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:SpaceX is set to launch its first two test satellites on ... by phkahler on Saturday February 17, 2018 @03:46PM (#16402596)

>> It's even steeper than that. SpaceX could arrange to send up some payloads piggybacked on their commercial payloads. Their competitors could effectively be paying to put part of their fleet up.

A friend of mine in the telecom business claimed that's how Level3 grew. They were laying fiber for others, but the largest cost of that is in logistics, permitting, digging, etc... So they just laid down their own fiber along with their customers at a fraction of the cost.

[ Parent | on HN ]