[LINK] America to launch 12,000 communictions satellites

[David]

On Monday, 19 November 2018 00:43:45 AEDT Stephen Loosley wrote:
> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/15/communications_satellites_fcc/
> 
> This effectively gives the green light to the launch 12,335 mini-satellites that will operate in low orbit and mesh together to form next-generation communications networks.

I wonder how they'll be distributed?  The area of Earth is 510,072,000 km² so that would be one satellite for every 203.35 Km-square if they were uniformly distributed, the distance from Bowral to Newcastle with Sydney in the middle.  But these satellites won't be in geosynchronous orbit, so is the plan to just blanket the earth and live with the fact the Pacific Ocean will get the same coverage as a heavily populated land-mass like the north-eastern U.S. or India?

Does that mean the Square Kilometre Array at Murchison in W.A., a place chosen for its freedom from electromagnetic interference, will be continually bombarded with rubbish TV?

And at a technical level, I guess there'll be no reliable Internet during the rainy season in India or northern Australia.

Strategically, such a network would be highly vulnerable, especially if the U.S. were to try using it as a vehicle into China.  Can you imagine the chaos if the IoT is routed over this network (:-)...

I don't think I'll be investing in it.

David L.