Joel Corley comments

mmwkdw wrote,

It's been around for a long time.. but is expensive.... cheaper alternatives exist.

But fast, cheap broadband is not available everywhere. An in some place there is only one or two options and the provider asks outrageous fees for relatively slow and unreliable service.

These new satellite networks are hoping to deploy each satellite for ~US$2-10M each. That's just 10 to 50 times the cost of a cell tower installation with no recurring lease payments for the property it sits on. These satellites also tend to have a coverage area that's far greater than that of a cell tower, given that they will be around 300km to 1,000km overhead.

About 10% of the continental US population are good service candidates because of issues getting cheap, fast broadband. Most of the population of Alaska, Canada and much of central and south America are potential customers. I can't speak for other parts of the world though.

LEO satellite broadband internet has the potential to bring cost-effective internet providers to tens of millions of under-served people in just the Americas... Whether it will or not depends on just how cost-effective the solution really is and if they can create and run it profitably.