News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliable luxury. Parent comment

Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by jonathankoren on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:19AM (#35419232)
Well, why would anyone in an urban area need something Starlink, when there are already plenty of cheap and reliable alternatives, including alternatives at higher bandwidths?

The problem with building your company around rural internet is that there just aren’t that many people to spread the cost around, thus whatever the alternative is very expensive.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by fsh on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:26AM (#35419297)
According to the article, the system is alreay overloaded in rural Kansas.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by jonathankoren on Monday April 03, 2023 @03:00AM (#35419555)
What does the rural area have to do with starlink’s competitiveness in the urban environment?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by sethammons on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:45AM (#35420851)
They are responding to your second paragraph
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by noncoml on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:37AM (#35419366)
> when there are already plenty of cheap and reliable alternatives, including alternatives at higher bandwidths

That’s not true even in California. Plenty of small town where the only alternative is line of sight wireless internet.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by jonathankoren on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:56AM (#35419521)
That’s a rural town. I explicitly said “urban”.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by lazide on Monday April 03, 2023 @03:37AM (#35419840)
Starlink has more than enough customers picking up rural users. Urban is not their primary (or secondary) use case.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by jonathankoren on Monday April 03, 2023 @04:14PM (#35430591)
I see that my comment has revealed that many people don't bother to read for comprehension before responding.

My comment was that no matter how many rural customers you get, there just isn't enough people to make the per customer cost cheap, simply because the denominator is so small. Further more, Starlink et al. can never grow the pie (i.e. increase the denominator) because no one in an urban environment wants it.

My god. This isn't even a controversial statement, yet... woosh!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliabl... by noncoml on Monday April 03, 2023 @01:26PM (#35427804)
Oh.. I must have missed it. Sorry
[ Parent | on HN ]