LEO Satellite data is a natural non-monopoly
You get world wide coverage with the most basic system. And there are multiple vendors right now.
There is only one mega constellation currently in service, but we are discussing one of the next one. The Chinese are launching as well.
Yeah, it's not a monopoly, but it's not necessarily going to be super competitive either.
- Spectrum is a limitied resource.
- Feasible orbits are limited. This is compounded by #1. You only have so much spectrum, so each satellite has limited bandwidth available to it. Too low and the satellite falls out of orbit. Too high and each satellites service area is too large. Even with beamforming, you can run into interference issues if the birds are too high.
- Massive barriers to entry. You have regulatory hurdles on both the spectrum and spaceflight side. Then there's the staggering capital cost.
On the plus side, terrestrial telecoms are a competitor, which places a soft cap on what space-based providers can reasonably charge. All in all, it's not a traditional utility that requires monopoly regulation. It's, like cellular telecoms, a natural oligopoly.
The big caution is consolidation. If SpaceX uses its bloated valuation to buy a terrestrial telecom, that would be bad for consumers.
