Would you rather buy space broadband from a billionaire, or Communist China? The first batch of satellites in China's answer to Starlink – known as the Qianfan Constellation, sometimes also called G60 – was launched into orbit on Tuesday. State-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, whose subsidiary China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) was the launch general contractor, …
The government has enough control they can site cell towers wherever makes sense, rather than wherever local laws and NIMBYs allow. In areas of lower population density just make a taller one or put it on a big hill to increase the LOS and use 600 MHz spectrum for long distances.
I suppose if they want to cover the globe this is needed, but I wonder how it could be viable commercially given the Venn diagram between "people in China who don't currently have internet access" and "people in China who can afford to pay for internet access" is probably a fairly small sliver.
Backpacking to cell towers through mountainous terrain is challenging to say the least. Aside from line of sight issues for microwave links, the distances involved can require relay sites. Then there's the issue of power. Solar is possible but they're not without maintenanc, involve massive arrays and the higher sites are often above the snowline. 600MHz is also quite low bandwidth and isn't a magic bullet for getting into valleys and dense forests.
The central government isn't as omnipotent as many Westerners believe, or as it would itself like to be. NIMBY can be a thing there just as much as anywhere else, and local governments can be quite powerful in their own right.
I remember a few years back, crossing from Yunnan to Sichuan, there was a stretch of the traffic jammed highway completely unpaved, just random rocks. The explanation was simply that the local governments on each side rejected the responsibility for it on one another.
> space broadband
With all the world that I am ever going to find myself in, having high-speed fibre and / or high speed 5G - hell, even 4G is good enough - then I don't feel the need to spray my packets all over low earth orbit, too.
To me, this is not now a solution to anything. Although I did work for a company that provided ground stations for remote (think: Welsh Water locations) sites. But that was in the1980s. The need has all but disappeared now.
Look, whilst you or I, or pretty much anyone living in the UK or the EU does not particularly need this, there are plenty of locations around the world that you will never get a terrestrial connection. Either because the distances are too long to economically stretch Cable or Fibre (think middle of the Australian Desert. Remote islands. Hell some of the Outer Hebrides Islands), and/or where the terrain is not going to allow the use of towers to accommodate everyone's needs (think highly mountainous terrain with deep valleys, places where generating power for the towers themselves is not easy/possible, etc.).
There is a use case for these satellite comm systems. Is there enough of a use case to support 5 or 6 different constellations? Not a snowballs chance in hell. Starlink has (at the moment) the advantage because it's effectively the first operating constellation and so has the satellites already up there. We'll see if it can maintain that advantage (Musk doesnt have a great history in taking advantage of his first player bonus). Everyone else is playing catch up. Whether anyone can make it profitable, is another question entirely (and the smart money would say No...)
I suspect the chinese are not chasing profit.
I suspect they're wisely sacrificing profit to enable greater Usable physical results.
Money is merely stored potential to Influence other humans until successfully applied to gain a useful physical situation.
Until exchanged it's just numbers on a leaderboard that might be exchanged for something directly usable.
I suspect they're skipping the middle man, and cutting out the drain that is profit to obtain results more directly.
After all , in fair exchange that accounts for everyone affected involved there is no profit.
Profit is not earned, Otherwise it would be a wage. Profit is won.
"I suspect they're wisely sacrificing profit to enable greater Usable physical results."
And just how does anyone really know what they are putting up there.. It's not like a Govt officer is going to make a check that it is really just an Internet relay of some kind of another.
We have absolutely no idea how many Laser Fitted Sharks might actually be waiting inside each of these modules.
I expect China to do do some DNS fiddling and traffic control, in the same way I expect Musk to. Both are hugely intolerant of ideas they disagree with. It will be easy enough to note where the traffic comes from so everyone can limit locations etc just like he does but I would always want what I am doing - ie criticise fascists - to be hidden from them.
Actually I do so little political stuff that they probably wouldn't care but I would want the ability to use a VPN of my choice as a basic.
"Actually I do so little political stuff that they probably wouldn't care"
Then you should. Leaving politics to power hungry nacisists (government) is not a good idea. It only goes one way but slowly so you don't noitce. Like the boiling a frog epithet - we are the frogs!
If the billionaire is Musk I'd have no problem making the choice. He's pretty much not going to care (or be involved) in what anyone is sending over his satellites.
The Chicoms are another matter, start sending stuff over their satellites about freeing Tibet, the persecution of the Uyghurs, or their use of slave labor and you'll likely get shut down pretty fast... and if you are in a place they control YOU are likely to get shut down more permanently. Communist dictatorships aren't fond of criticism... just as the survivors of Tiananmen Square, if you can find any. (Oh, and don't talk about that either).
I choose Chinese coz they will be better, faster, cheaper & more secure by my opinion. Moreover, they are ofc anti-nazi, anti-fascist & anti-endless-war hi-tech oriented.
The main point is, their future low orbit net is 6G based, IoE, internet of everything, a space-air-sea-land network. They already have a 6x test 6G satellites in the Orbit for the past 3 years (1st launched in 2019). Obviously requirement is only a sat-chip inside the phone (like Mate 60 Pro), with no sat-dish at all, more suitable for daily use.
Curiosity: Mount Everest have a 5G same as China Space Station 5G++ (1,6Gbs). Beijing have a 5G-A from this year (4,6Gbs), a start point for IoV, internet of vehicles.
The problem is that China is not really communist.
They're a fascist dictatorship, complete with concentration camps. Income inequality is worse than the US. Healthcare isn't free, nor is education. Racism is rampant, minorities are repressed. They've announced their intention to take Taiwan by force in the future (they know they aren't strong enough to do it now, that's why that war hasn't happened yet). They are currently actively harassing the Philippines with warships. They periodically attack India over territory they are trying to claim. And they are attempting to economically colonize parts of Africa.
At some point they're going to attack Taiwan. Everything you buy from them is bringing that day closer. And you can rest assured that American and British lives will be lost defending Taiwan from the mainland Chinese fascists.
The other problem is Elon is also a fascist.
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