> Europe is also so densely populated that full 4g coverage is totally doable.
The main goal here as I can see is to learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the main infrastructure (including electric grid) was targeted.
The issue is much broader than you may consider. Besides the obvious benefits for military communication, consider the following points (all from my experience living in Kyiv):
1. Modern society depends on the internet heavily - banks, shops, eCommerce. Your ATMs need internet to allow you to withdraw cash. Your enemy will target your power infrastructure to stop economic activity very early.
2. In case of long-term power outages, you can expect most of the land lines will stop working after 12 hours when batteries on the ISP sides start to be depleted.
3. Your 4G network will become less and less useful very quickly, the more people will start losing wired internet and switching over to 4G. The cellular will not be able to fulfil demand and eventually will halt under the load.
4. It is very difficult to power wired internet with mobile generation, as the infrastructure is huge and requires power generation in multiple places at once.
Satellite internet solve this miraculously:
1. you can get internet where you need it without reliance on any other infrastructure - i.e. bank, office, ATM, etc... Just plug the dish to the nearby router.
2. Mobile power generation becomes much more useful, as you can have it only where it needed (i.e. to power satcom).
The main goal here as I can see is to learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the main infrastructure (including electric grid) was targeted.
The issue is much broader than you may consider. Besides the obvious benefits for military communication, consider the following points (all from my experience living in Kyiv):
1. Modern society depends on the internet heavily - banks, shops, eCommerce. Your ATMs need internet to allow you to withdraw cash. Your enemy will target your power infrastructure to stop economic activity very early.
2. In case of long-term power outages, you can expect most of the land lines will stop working after 12 hours when batteries on the ISP sides start to be depleted.
3. Your 4G network will become less and less useful very quickly, the more people will start losing wired internet and switching over to 4G. The cellular will not be able to fulfil demand and eventually will halt under the load.
4. It is very difficult to power wired internet with mobile generation, as the infrastructure is huge and requires power generation in multiple places at once.
Satellite internet solve this miraculously:
1. you can get internet where you need it without reliance on any other infrastructure - i.e. bank, office, ATM, etc... Just plug the dish to the nearby router.
2. Mobile power generation becomes much more useful, as you can have it only where it needed (i.e. to power satcom).
3. It is VERY cheap considering the alternative.