[Starlink] Re: Data centers are racing to space — and regulation can’t keep up

[Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz>]

On 27/02/2026 12:16 pm, Nitinder Mohan via Starlink wrote:
>> But when we're talking data centers, we're not talking downlinking to end users with Dishys. We're talking downlinking to other infrastructure.
> I dont fully agree with this. Unlike terrestrial DCs, which cannot connect to end-users primarily because they are installed “off-shore”, space-based DCs are likely just sats with more compute capacity and they should behave, operate and (transitively) connect with ground terminals with comm links. I don’t see any reason why they cannot connect directly with end-users (provided they both use Ku/other relevant band).

I don't think we're disagreeing here. When you connect directly to 
Dishys from DC, which of course you can, then of course you're subject 
to the downlink bottleneck that you pointed out earlier. That bottleneck 
arises because you are bound by the user's location and need to downlink 
rain or shine, which nails you down in Ku band.

It's just that when you connect a space-based DC that's part of an ISL 
mesh to distributed ground infrastructure, then you have a planet full 
of locations to connect to, any of which is suitable as long as there is 
good weather there. You have the means to link there with ISLs, and 
vastly more spectrum to up- or downlink in, including unlicensed 
optical. So there's heaps of choice. On the ground, you simply forward 
the data via fibre to where it actually needs to go.

I guess another question here is time horizon. Are we talking next year, 
in five, in ten or twenty years?

-- 
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Dr. Ulrich Speidel

School of Computer Science

Room 303S.594 (City Campus)

The University of Auckland
u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz 
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
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