Satellite mesh networks stop pretending they can replace fibre

Every constellation pitch from the last cycle promised to obsolete terrestrial broadband. The operators still flying have all quietly rewritten that slide.

Where orbit genuinely wins

Ships, aircraft, mines, disaster zones and the last two per cent of rural households — places where trenching a cable costs more per home than a decade of satellite service.

Inter-satellite laser links changed the routing story more than any ground upgrade. Traffic can now cross an ocean without touching a gateway, which is what made maritime and aviation contracts profitable.

The unglamorous limit is capacity per cell. Orbit cannot conjure spectrum, so dense cities remain a fibre problem and always will be.