High-speed internet is the new space race. But do the economics work?

The White House’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan proposes $100 billion for broadband. Right now, however, it is hard to get broadband to large expanses of this country unless the infrastructure is in space. Low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations could bring high-speed internet access to those areas. Elon Musk’s Starlink is the best known, but there are a few other companies in the mix. Who could benefit from this new version of satellite internet? Sascha Segan from PCMag says, "This is going to be transformative for people in rural areas. But satellite internet, even this new form of satellite internet, has relatively little capacity per square mile. It’s good at covering large areas with the internet." But Starlink may also help people suburban and exurban areas, where there’s a lot of people who say, “AT&T has laid a line 500 feet from my property, and they refuse to extend it,” or, “Spectrum has a line 1,000 feet from my property, and they want $80,000 to extend it.” And those people are going to potentially start getting Starlink. And at that point, are AT&T and Spectrum going to want to expand their coverage somewhat? There’s some hope for that.