Re: [Starlink] Starlink "beam spread"

[David Lang <david@lang.hm>]

On Tue, 30 Aug 2022, David P. Reed via Starlink wrote:

> Starlink is a good "last resort" service as constituted. But fiber and last few-hundred meters wireless is SO much better able to deliver good Internet service scalably.

You are absolutly correct that people who can get fiber (and probably even most 
DSL) are far better using that than Starlink, and last-few-hundred-meters 
wireless can be better (like DSL, it depends on the exact service available)

But stating this as if it means problems for Starlink is a strawman argument.

People who can get that sort of service are not the target users for Starlink. 
The vast majority of the land area in the US does not have such service 
available (for that matter, as the T-Mobile/SpaceX announcement pointed out, the 
vast majority of the land area in the US does not even have voice/text cell 
coverage). Those areas (plus mobile use, RVs, boats, aircraft, event coverage, 
disaster coverage, etc) are what Starlink is aimed at.

Admittedly, some of these needs could be covered by last-few-hundred-meters 
wireless, but such services also are limited in the number of users they 
support, and their detractors point out how they are massive fails when compared 
to wired service, so they are far from ubiquitous, they need just the right 
conditions (enough users in range to be profitable, but not so many that they 
are wll served by wired service)

My sister was on a wireless service, and the best that they could provide was 
2Mb (and that was more weather sensitive than Starlink is), Starlink is a game 
changer for her family.

David Lang
In Theory, Theory and Practice are the same, In Practice they are different.