HACKER Q&A
📣 Brajeshwar

More satellites launched often; why isn’t satellite data cheaper?


More satellites launched often; why isn’t satellite data cheaper?


  👤 Nokinside Accepted Answer ✓
Satellite data cheaper now but it will never be as cheap as alternatives when they exist.

Satellite data is bandwidth limited. A single StarLink satellite has 20 Gbps bandwidth (with 2polarization 64QAM modulation). That's roughly equal to four or five 5G base stations (uplink speeds). Most of the time satellites are over the seas with only a few customers, so we are talking maybe max 5-10% utilization.

Satellite data will never be competitive in urban areas. The value comes from rural and remote regions, ships and aircraft. Smaller number of customers means higher price.


👤 bell-cot
StarLink has made satellite internet service vastly cheaper (overall), so I'll guess you mean Earth observation data.

How do you figure that any of the ~tiny companies in that market could benefit from a major price cut? Demand (at anything near current prices) is limited, and ramping up capacity (operational satellites) to take advantage more business would be very slow/expensive/uncertain.


👤 pestatije
satellite data IS cheaper