No, the Chinese didn't float a squadron of balloons over Boston tonight

against America’s allies.

My brother lives within an hour of Salt Lake City, but without Starlink he wouldn't have internet.

Unfortunately, just like outer space, internet access is not yet seen as a public utility (like electricity). So, we're not getting it to everyone everywhere. Starlink is the best satellite solution that bridges that gap for now. I hate the privatization of public space, but if that's the world we are currently going to live in because government officials are too weak to stand up to powerful corporate "voices" then, at the very least, when we're getting some public good from the service, we're going to have to see that bright side until things change.

light pollution. That's getting harder and harder to do.

Satellite upload rates are garbage. They barely qualify as "broadband" rates and if I had to investigate, I bet I could find where the definition of broadband was devolved to allow satellite providers to fit in the category OR that they're falsifying upload rates to meet the "broadband" definition. If you have a good 4G cell phone signal, you'd almost be better off uploading via cell phone. Fortunately for satellite internet providers, the dominant use case for internet is download, which can be as fast as very basic cable home internet services.

But their main competitor isn't going to be home cable/fiber internet. Satellites will never keep up with the download rate and data bloat of the modern internet. It'll be with 5G phone services, where reaching those customers "off the grid", as it were, will be ideal for wireless-based communication. If 5G providers get their antennas in places that reach more rural/isolated households, then they'll prove much more stable and with better upload rates (and likely better download rates) than satellite providers and make satellites a more niche application (like maritime networking).

Right now, in the "last-mile" race, 5G to every field and valley is far more expensive than developing a single network of satellites to hit the disconnected masses all at once. So, 5G providers are trying to cover all the places they get the most bang-for-their-buck...people on the go in places that also have great wired broadband already. They're gifting all the rural users to satellite only for now.

Will that be enough to afford the creation and upkeep of a network of satellites? Who knows just yet. There's been a LOT of sign-ups with Starlink and the other satellite providers as they've opened their doors to new customers. Of course, if the government just handled the cost of it all and anyone/everyone could use Starlink as needed, there'd be a lot more value in it for everyone and maybe we'd even see some sort of hybrid network of 5G/Starlink base stations start going up across the nation to allow cell phone providers to keep you online at all times if you want to.

But, truly *public* internet is both one of our biggest and least of our problems at the same time. And there's enough money at play, that our current rules on money being speech means we won't be addressing it as a nation any time soon.