Satellite Hopes Meet Internet Reality

Amazon, Boeing and a bunch of other companies may soon join Elon Musk’s SpaceX in beaming internet service from space. Yes, it is cool, but the companies involved and people excited about satellite internet tend to overstate how much good it can realistically do. There are limits to the technology, and structural barriers to internet access cannot be solved by technology alone. Nearly all policy experts and technologists whom I’ve spoken to about satellite internet services say the same thing: Satellite internet won’t be realistic for most people and places. The technology is a useful complement for parts of the world that conventional internet pipelines cannot easily or affordably reach, such as mountainous or remote areas. But those who are enthralled by the idea tend to talk about satellite internet as a potential cure-all for global internet access problems. Satellite internet is not a magic bullet. Tech problems are also far from the only reasons so many people aren’t using the internet. It’s about ineffective government policies, social and economic inequalities, entrenched corporate interests, and people who have more pressing needs than being online. Inch-by-inch improvement on these fronts is a frustrating but necessary piece of expanding internet access. It would help if the powerful people and companies behind satellite internet projects saw the bigger picture as part of their work, too.

[Shira Ovide writes the New York Times' On Tech newsletter, a guide to how technology is reshaping our lives and world.]