Session 108: "Low Earth Orbit Satellites: Boon or Bane"

"Looking at LEOs In 2024"
All the ships at sea. Airplanes too! Anywhere.
Billions of people and thousands of communities still lack adequate access to the internet. Infrastructure economics is merciless. When public finance or commerical ROI runs out, the wires and towers stop. Universal Access remains a dream. So, what are the tradeoffs of deploying broadband from space?
Millions of users and community access hubs like libraries are helping Starlink prove this technology is robust and reliable. But at what cost? Is near earth orbit big enough for multiple mass constellations? New reports of excess radiation blocking earth based radio astronomy which has given the world fantastical looks into the cosmos back almost to the origins of time!
What are the territorial and regulatory limits to these semi-autonomous systems, nearly independent of local terrestrial infrastructure and national government controls? How big is this? How many more such systems are being built and can be accommodated? What are the tradeoffs and who gets to decide? All quite complex.
Join us to get the latest.
Speaker: Dan York, Senior Advisor | Internet Society
As we near the end of 2024, what is the current state of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems for Internet access? What is happening with SpaceX’s Starlink? And what about all the potential competitors? What capabilities are available now - or are coming soon - for libraries and other community centers?
Back in 2022, Dan York from the Internet Society joined us on several sessions of Libraries in Response to talk about the evolving LEOs industry. In November 2022, a team Dan led published a detailed report “Perspectives on LEO Satellite Systems”.
Now we’ll have him back to talk about where the industry has gone - or hasn’t gone - over the past two years. We’ll explore the growth of Starlink, the launch of systems from China, the status of competition, the rise of direct-to-cell, and also concerns over environmental impact and other costs. Bring your questions and join us for a look at the current state of LEO systems.