SpaceX’s satellite internet service is a technological marvel — when it works

By Nilay Patel on May 14, 2021 10:00 am //

Starlink is a new satellite-based internet service from SpaceX. In beta, it promises up to 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds. Starlink currently has very limited availability. //

Starlink has set a long-term goal of 1Gbps down. It represents competition, something the American broadband market sorely lacks.

In that context, Starlink also represents something else: the American telecom policy establishment’s long-standing, almost religious belief that consumers are best served by something called “facility-based competition.” Starlink is a new facility for accessing the internet, one that does not rely on existing infrastructure. “Facility-based competition,” telecom lobbyists feverishly whisper while handing out their dirty, sweat-stained checks in Congress. “That is the American way.” //

Of course, the only thing a decades-long commitment to “facility-based competition” has brought to most Americans is… a total lack of competition. Reality, as I have said, is quite irritating. //

(by contrast, in europe, where the prevailing philosophy is called “service-based competition,” large incumbent providers are required to lease fiber access to competitors and there is a thriving market for internet access with much lower prices for much faster speeds. if the united states were in europe, it would have the most expensive broadband in the region.) //

look, i know you’re hyped up about starlink. i feel you. i also wish i could tweet a photo of dishy in my yard to every telecom ceo in the game and tell them to try harder. but the verge has long had a hard rule against reviewing products based on potential because the sad truth is that most tech products never, ever live up to their potential. and starlink, judged on its capabilities right now, is simply not a real competitor to the long, long coax wire running from my house to the local cable company fiber plant. it’s not even a great competitor to my data-capped-and-throttled “unlimited” at&t 5g service because i can reasonably work from home on that connection and i really can’t with starlink. and in the end, starlink’s traffic has to run over fiber in the ground anyway. //

all the people dreaming of starlink upsetting cable monopolies and reinventing broadband need to seriously reset their expectations. at best, starlink currently offers reasonably fast access with inconsistent connectivity, huge latency swings, and a significant uptick in time spent considering whether you can just get out the chainsaw and solve the tree problem yourself. //

maybe this will change as the company launches more satellites. maybe it will eventually work better in areas that are dominated by tall trees. maybe one day it will not drop out in wind and heavy rain. i didn’t give starlink a formal review score because the whole thing is openly in beta and the company isn’t making many promises about reliability. but even when it’s final, you’re still looking at a service whose near-term, best-case scenario is being competitive with a solid lte connection. i am no fan of cable companies and wireless carriers, but it’s simply true that my cable broadband and 5g service are both faster and more reliable than starlink, and they will almost certainly remain that way. //

as a whole, the american telecom policy industrial complex has utterly failed to put fiber in the ground and signals in the air at fair prices and with good customer support. so much so that a total science project of an internet access system — which involves huge tradeoffs for scientific research and doesn’t work if there are trees in the way — has captured the attention and imagination of millions.

broadband on the ground is so wrapped up in the lumbering bullshit of monopolistic regulatory capture that it seems easier and more effective to literally launch rockets and try building a network in the sky. starlink isn’t the happy end result of a commitment to “facility-based competition.” it is thousands of middle fingers pointing at us from the air. it is what happens when there is an utter lack of competition.