By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026Some (very foolish) people say that Starlink represents a competitive alternative to fiber. This is nonsense - first, because Starlink is another natural monopoly (how many competing satellite constellations can we cram into stable orbits before they start smashing into each other?). 6/ 1290
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026Second: second, because satellite is *millions of times slower* than fiber: www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/... In Germany, most people also have a single fiber provider, and the connection they get is shared, and caps out at 1-2Gbit. 7/somebits.comNelson's Weblog: tech / bad / starlink-nov-2022-data-caps 2180
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026Meanwhile, the Swiss can get connections that are *far* faster, and cheaper. How did they do it? For starters, the Swiss recognized what any Simcity player knows: fiber is a "natural monopoly." 8/ 1233
Nelson @nelson.somebits.com · 07/04/2026This post you link is outdated: I've updated it. I regularly get 100-200Mbps on Starlink. 25,000 Mbps fiber would be amazing, but it's more like 100x faster than Starlink, not millions. 031