this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Yay, more space junk, and knowing Google they would abandon the whole thing a couple years in when it gets boring and leave them to rot.

Edit:not actually sat, which makes it weird to call a 'starlink competitor' then, but I don't write the headlines.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (2 children)
  • They split off from Google.

  • They are not using satellites, they shine a lazer from one fixed tower to another, with range about 20 km.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Ah, see that's where not reading is a problem. Just saw star link competitor and remembered something a recently about China looking to launch a similar system.

Odd they would phrase it as a 'starlink competitor' then though rather than 'a new ISP bid'. Wireless systems with directional antenna relays are not really new, not sure if any use laser particularly but the concept is essentially the same.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

Yeah back in 2005 I lived in a house that used that. We were on the very edge of it range so a strong gust of wind could knock the internet down.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Still raking in the upvotes though! Reading is for suckers!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That sounds similar to WiMax.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yup. Now we have long-range WiFi filling that niche.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

At sufficiently low orbits, the satellites would simply deorbit themselves because of the atmospheric drag. Several Starlink sats have been lost this way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, more thinking the wasted time, resources, and emissions involved in building, launching, managing, and then whenever makes it down.

Take all that and make something useful instead, whatever happened to Google fiber being built out all over? More reliable, faster, doesn't involve sending piles of redundant satellites into space...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Supposedly traditional ISP's have tons and tons of lawyers and filed every single step of the way to stop Google from intruding on their local monopolies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I think the existing telecoms tied them up in mountains of legal bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Wasn't starlink damaging the ozone layer as well?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago

It was more they're worried it would, because of the sheer scale of metallic satellites that would be burning up in the upper atmosphere

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When they say "burn up on reentry" they don't mean disintegrate, they mean burn. It's exactly like throwing thousands of home entertainment systems in a fire except that the pollution is in the upper atmosphere where normal pollution doesn't reach.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Perfectly Safe(c) until proven* otherwise!

- every polluter ever

*Hope you have good lawyers and deep pockets

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I don't know about the ozone layer specifically, but reentry turns the satellite into danger dust -- mostly metal oxides and burnt polymers. Ozone, being a very strong oxidizer, is the most likely to react with the hot debris, so it probably does damage the ozone layer, but I can't quantify the damage, or the released pollutants.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Completely destroying space and satellite communication might actually be for the best... maybe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Not if you're in a place that relies on satellite infrastructure, such as places conventional telephony doesn't work in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

I was just joking and thinking much more apopalytic than that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago

No even there it's ok