[anthuman]

I respect and admire the risks Musk is willing to take and am amazed that he is able to find financial backers for his projects.

But I have to wonder whether the internet connection can be maintained during cloudy days and what the expected upload/download speeds will be and finally what the expected costs will be.

Affordable and globally available internet could be a game-changer. If viable, couldn't it challenge wireless carriers and ISPs?

Also, aren't there geopolitical ramifications. Would China, Russia, EU, etc allow their citizens to access the starlink system? Or will starlink have to be censored, filtered and monitored in these regions?

[HeadsUpHigh]

>But I have to wonder whether the internet connection can be maintained during cloudy days and what the expected upload/download speeds will be and finally what the expected costs will be.

Depends on the size of the constellation. Ultimately I think they want to have 3 sats visible at any given time which should be enough. The bands used can penetrate though anyway. I've seen numbers quoted of speeds up to 1gbps, so basically "good enough". I'm currently using a 4 mbps connection just fine and the fastest I have access to is 8 mbps down 0.5mbps up. And I'm getting my browsing done just fine. Costs are up to discussion, the main selling point of Starlink is backbone and the receiver was according to Shotwell one of the main research points to drive the cost down( 1k$ at the time but an obscure tech, they want it down to 300$).

>Affordable and globally available internet could be a game-changer. If viable, couldn't it challenge wireless carriers and ISPs?

No because of density limitations. They can't support enough bandwidth for an entire city. Also direct LoS is required so big buildings will limit you.

>Also, aren't there geopolitical ramifications. Would China, Russia, EU, etc allow their citizens to access the starlink system? Or will starlink have to be censored, filtered and monitored in these regions?

Current sat internet providers just don't sell their receivers in China or any country that doesn't allow them.

[brad0]

I’m not an expert but I don’t think clouds will affect it.

Do clouds prevent you from getting a GPS signal? (I know these satellites are LEO but I don’t think that should matter)

[Rebelgecko]

GPS is a bit different. It's uses multiple frequencies, so receivers can correct from some of the water vapor attenuation. I suspect that GPS satellites also broadcast at a much higher power than the starlink terminals will. Starlink is also using a much higher frequencies: GPS is around 1ghz. Starlink is in the 12-40 range since it used Ku and Ka band. Ku and Ka are much more susceptible to problems from moisture in the atmosphere. That's actually why K Band was split into Ku(under) and Ka(above). The middle parts around 22ghz are not useful for communicating through lots of atmosphere because so much of the signal gets absorbed by water (sidenote-- NASA and NOAA use signals around 22ghz to measure water vapor in the atmosphere. That's why they're pissed that the FCC auctioned off 24ghz spectrum for 5G-- it's going to interfere with forecasting things like hurricanes).