The satellite companies need to build dishes
and antennas that are more complicated and
costlier than those for traditional satellites that
don’t move. SpaceX, for example, has filed
for permission with U.S. regulators to build 1
million “earth stations” that would help connect
customers to the internet.
There’s no way to have a viable mass service
unless the cost of this type of equipment
drops, said Caleb Williams, economic
analyst at aerospace engineering company
SpaceWorks Enterprises.
Launches have already been pushed back:
OneWeb had once said it would be operating in
Alaska this year. But service is now expected to
start in late 2020.
The logistics of becoming an internet service
provider also aren’t easy. The new crop of space-
internet companies are more likely to set up
arrangements with existing telecom companies
than try to sell internet service directly, Williams
said, because it’s easier than setting up a sales
and marketing operation of their own.
Those same telecom companies don’t want to
build in remote areas because it’s too expensive.
A Federal Communications Commission official
in 2017 estimated that extending fiber to the
roughly 20 million U.S. homes and businesses
that lacked broadband would cost $80 billion.
And in developing countries, where the
underlying infrastructure is worse, internet is
primarily available through a cellphone.
The new satellite companies may have an
infrastructure alternative that’s cheaper for
companies to build than wires on the ground. A
telecom company needs to pay to build out to a