Twinkle, twinkle, little Starlink: my Trade Secrets today. Countries are scrambling to set up their own satellite systems rather than depend on geopolitical foes. It's all part of the politicisation of the plumbing of the world economy. - ThreadSky

alanbeattie.bsky.social • 31 days ago

Twinkle, twinkle, little Starlink: my Trade Secrets today.

Countries are scrambling to set up their own satellite systems rather than depend on geopolitical foes. It's all part of the politicisation of the plumbing of the world economy.

Comments

roylonergan.bsky.social•31 days ago

Interesting. Did the issue of cascading space junk making much of the space for these systems become unusable come up? Would be massively funny if reactions to Trump/Musk ended up putting a stop (well a big pause) to the space program.

lglly.bsky.social•30 days ago

Flights near Puerto Rico needed to avoid passing through the area — or risk being hit by falling chunks of the Starship, the newest and biggest of Elon Musk’s rockets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/politics/faa-spacex-musk.html

lglly.bsky.social•30 days ago

https://thenetworkinstallers.com/blog/starlink-competitors/

rochbourassa.bsky.social•31 days ago

For industries / services that rely, or have dependency, on US-controlled #GPS, is there a plausible threat scenario that US could "turn off" access to GPS as means to extract more geopolitical / geoeconomic power? Is #canada (as an example, similar to India) vulnerable to the loss of access to GPS?

austin-dave.bsky.social•31 days ago

There is limited space where the satellites need to be for this to work. Starlink had the best positions and getting there first is a huge advantage.

roylonergan.bsky.social•31 days ago

You’re not into snooker or billiards?

oldtrotter.bsky.social•31 days ago

As an aside one of my cases at OFT in the late 1980s was whether Decca had a monopoly on navigation systems. Remarkably prescient of me to say that it didn’t, but I did chuckle at the line about private companies and navaids https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/1D1639DFD97C2EAC30AAAEA2A8704D47/S0373463314000666a.pdf/genesis_of_the_decca_navigator_system.pdf

brokenbanker.bsky.social•31 days ago

you're a kind man 😁🙏

alanbeattie.bsky.social•31 days ago

mwm76.bsky.social•30 days ago

Or there is @ast-science.com

https://www.theverge.com/news/618525/att-verizon-cellphone-satellite-video-calls-ast-mobile

crusaderproject.bsky.social•31 days ago

Reminds me of this story. https://drenigma.org/2022/03/02/did-britain-sell-enigmas-postwar/

utahstock12.bsky.social•31 days ago

SpaceMobile is coming so long as SpaceX doesn't blow up their satellites on launch.

no-privacy.bsky.social•29 days ago

I’m rooting for continued success for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket 🚀 so $ASTS doesn’t need to fund SpaceX. NG is a cheaper ride as well.

tempura13.bsky.social•31 days ago

The soon the EU picks up the pace for IRIS² the better.

alanbeattie.bsky.social•31 days ago

Hoping the Ukraine war concentrates minds...

jaxtraw.bsky.social•31 days ago

We should bankrupt SpaceX by making them take all of their satellites out of orbit.

lglly.bsky.social•30 days ago

Starlink satellites are re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at an increasing rate, with 120 burning up in January 2025 alone. This has created nightly artificial meteor showers and raised concerns about aluminum oxide accumulation in the atmosphere
https://watchers.news/2025/02/08/starlink-satellites-reentering-earths-atmosphere-in-increasing-numbers-creating-artificial-meteor-showers/#:~:text=Starlink%20satellites%20produce%20artificial%20meteor,natural%20celestial%20events%20by%20skywatchers.

rauchway.bsky.social•31 days ago

In my office I have a map of the submarine telegraph cable network ca. WWI with British cables shown in red

alanbeattie.bsky.social•31 days ago

Yes - only when writing on this last year did I learn that the sterling-dollar rate was known as "cable" (indeed still is by some) as it was traded along a transatlantic submarine cable.

lairddinnaken.bsky.social•31 days ago

I’m old enough to remember (and use) that term!

alanbeattie.bsky.social•31 days ago

I remember the markets people from the BoE when I worked there going on about half a yard of cable. No clue. None.

katie0martin.ft.com•31 days ago

wat? haha

alanbeattie.bsky.social•31 days ago

I did then learn tbf. But the problem as a BoE economist with learning markets jargon is you then got volunteered to go and talk to the BoE markets people.

brokenbanker.bsky.social•31 days ago

am a fan of the rhyming slang version much beloved of our Aussie FX maestro @kenveksler.bsky.social , namely 'Betty' (where Betty Grable = cable)

katie0martin.ft.com•31 days ago

Bill & Ben ofc. (yen)