How Space X’s Starlink could help emerging economies leapfrog traditional telecoms technology
The Indonesian government has contracted SpaceX to launch a communications satellite to provide internet connectivity to every corner of the sprawling archipelago, a highly complex technological challenge given the particular characteristics of the country, with its population spread over a total of 17,508 islands.
Two-thirds of Indonesia’s 280 million inhabitants already have access to reasonable quality internet, a fundamental requirement for any country wishing to modernize and develop its economy. But this is mainly because almost half the population live on Java, while many of its other islands have tiny populations that telecommunications companies are unwilling to invest in.
With a fast-growing economy, this dynamic country has decided to take advantage of SpaceX’s low-cost satellite launches — the result of Elon Musk’s strategy of applying continual economies of scale — and put into orbit a satellite that will connect areas that, through submarine cables, would have taken more than ten years to be connected. The solution adopted by the Indonesian government is not particularly innovative: it is simply cheaper than what many other countries have done in the past by launching their own communications satellites.
