Internet anytime, anywhere, even if it means fighting a battle in space. In a good way, of course. In the challenge of satellite Internet at finally affordable prices, the giants are facing each other. Elon Musk paved the way with his StarLink, to whom we owe a meritorious gift to the peoples and armies who are on the side of the "good guys" in the war in Ukraine (not only between battlefields but also in the service of Russian citizens whom the regime has cut off from unofficial communications). StarLink continues to grow: Musk's SpaceX service currently has over 3.600 satellites and covers 25 countries with over 145.000 users. And now Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, is ready to leave, and would like to make his satellite Internet network operational "Cooper” (the name evokes the father of modern planetary sciences) by 2026 with at least half of the more than 3.200 satellites that should cover almost the entire globe in the following years: it should be planned in the next few weeks (after some delays compared to the original schedule ) the launch of the first two satellites, which will act as prototypes, using the new "Vulcan Centaur" carrier rocket from the United Launch Alliance, a partnership between the two big Boeing and Lockheed.
SPACE ECONOMY: BEZOS' CHALLENGE TO MUSK
The Bezos system, which foresees a total investment of around 10 billion dollars, promises to have innovative features even compared to StarLink. In fact, it was conceived right from the start to offer a dual use: in addition to the direct connection to the satellites through small antennas to be pointed towards the sky, as for the competing system, it also promises to act as a bridge between the great global Internet backbones for connect cellular systems similar to those already widespread (4g-Lte and 5g), which will therefore also be able to reach those areas where the connection with the international networks necessary to create local cellular systems is now difficult or impossible. A modality that can naturally be used (the question concerns commercial strategies) also by other competing systems, as indeed StarLink is already planning which is already developing a solution which in the meantime will allow direct satellite connection to normal cellular devices set up for this mode.
Bezos' Kuiper system also provides, like StarLink, low-orbit satellites capable of connecting with relatively low transmission power terrestrial terminals connected to small panel antennas smaller than those we all use for satellite TV. Antennas whose characteristics have already been released by the creators of Kuiper these days. The antenna intended for consumer users and small businesses has a rectangular area no larger than a sheet of A4 paper with a thickness of 2,54 centimeters (one inch) and weighing just over two kilos: it should guarantee , with the router given supplied, speed of approx 400 megabits per second (Mb/s) in download with a cost for the devices to be paid by the user (who will be able to place the antenna by himself with a simple interactive guide, as indeed happens for StarLink) around 400 dollars.
SATELLITE, ANTENNAS AND FINAL COSTS
An even smaller cheaper antenna is also planned (equivalent to a fruit plate and weighing less than half a kilo) which will however limit performance to 100 Mb/s in download. For those who need higher performance, instead, a slightly larger antenna is envisaged, with an area equivalent to a satellite frying pan but always rectangular in shape, which should allow speeds of around one gigabit per second to be reached (like a good terrestrial fiber optic connection). Prices for subscriptions? Still to be defined, but if we look at the first tariffs launched by StarLink i final costs, certainly proportional to the guaranteed connection speed, they shouldn't be much higher than those of a normal broadband connection guaranteed by terrestrial infrastructures.
