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SpaceX is trying to pad out their launch business more than than anything while OneWeb is only about communication."
I'm sorry, but that opinion is a load of excrement. Anyone who's listened to any of Musk's space / science symposium engagements would know the Starlink network is a leveraging of their re-usable boosters and an intended major source of funding for Musk's Starship / Mars efforts. SpaceX is rapidly accelerating into their Starlink program as a necessary evolution / adjunct to their overall strategic plans.
One significant difference in their tech and business model is that the Starlink network is in a much lower orbit than prior piss-poor rural geosync satellite services. IIRC 500-600mi rather than 23,000. The Starlink latency will be significantly less and the bandwidth far greater. The basic premise of it is 5G+ speeds, anywhere between the polar circles, once the full system is lofted (3-4years)
SpaceX is now on a schedule of lofting 60 Starlink satellites every 3-4 weeks. They're using 1st stage boosters on their 3rd-4th-5th re-use (and with the deliberate intent to re-use them as many times as possible, as a parallel demonstration and testing of their tech). Their costs to orbit are thus substantially lower than the geosynch based dinosaurs you put forward in comparison.
Starlink is expected to be in limited commercial rollout by the end of the year. And in full sale for use over the next two years.
I'm in an old neighborhood in suburban Los Angeles, I can't get anything better than cable internet at a relatively slow 70mbit down / 6mbit up. 5G starts at 50mbit down and can go much faster. My intermediate plans include a semi-rural homestead in TX. Up until news of Starlink, I was looking to stay within 'cable' distance of some intermediate-sized towns. A functional Starlink network makes internet at broadband speeds available just about anywhere. That's a huge game-changer. Especially compared to the plodding geostationary satellite internet services and their slow narrow speeds.
And Musk's stated goal is that service is going to cost LESS than rural satellite and suburban broadband, cost consumers well under what they are paying today. Starlink is going to wipe away most of those legacy systems, just as their Falcon-9 is eating everybody's lunch in the commercial satellite launch business. ESA is crying for EU subsidies as they lose customers to SpaceX.
And frankly, SpaceX is already so far beyond Bezos' Blue Origin efforts, by every measure. Not least of all commercial payloads to orbit and recovery and re-use of said boosters. Some of the Starlink launches have included 1st stages on their
fourth re-use. Blue Origin is clocking what a dozen demonstration / test launches? SpaceX is pushing 90 launches of their Falcon9 and delivering a lot of real and varied payloads to orbit.
They're recouping boosters at sea and on land (I actually attended their first land recovery on the west coast) and even catching some of their $6M carbon fiber nose fairings at sea. IIRC they just missed what would have been their 50th landing recovery (out of 60+ attempts) on their most recent starlink launch a few days ago.
I'm hoping that Bezos does more than compete for 'space tourism' with Branson's Virgin Galactic. Musk is going to take us to Mars and fully intends on establishing a human colony there.
eta - Starlink to date, 302 satellites on orbit. Another 60 slated for March 4.
en.wikipedia.org
www.iridium.com
