OP here. Thanks for remembering who we are!
We're very much in the low cost wifi business, we're just taking the leap to fully own the backhaul part too. For the last 3 years we used partner ISP infrastructure to power our network, much like an MVNO. We saw first hand the terrible quality of service our partners provided mostly due to the limitations of their tech stack and their fiber deployments. We're taking the leap to deploy a much more reliable backhaul backbone at a much lower price.
Starlink & Kuiper are a totally different ballgame. Their satellites communicate with each other via FSOC, but the end delivery to the customer is a phased array solution. We're using FSOC as the backbone and overhead fiber to the customer premises.
Although 5G is a few years away in India, spectrum sales haven't started and its unclear whether our telecom companies can even afford it given the level of debt the industry already has. That being said, we're poised to be an enabler of 5G once it does arrive because all those 5G small cells are going to require much more backhaul than they currently have. Less than 30% of the mobile phone towers in India right now have fiber backhaul, that situation is only going to get worse when 5G arrives, so we see it as an opportunity to be a backhaul provider for 5G services.
Starry.com is using millimetre waves in the radio spectrum, whereas we're using lasers. The big difference is in India the 5G spectrum is not for public use as of yet, the big advantage of lasers is that they use unlicensed free space so there's no spectrum charges that apply.
Sounds like an interesting pivot. Can you please share the backstory, if you're okay?
How does Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper compare to FSOC in terms of delivering cost effective Internet?
Also, what are the most pressing challenges with a FSOC deployment? I'm guessing line-of-sight issues are a real problem?
5G changes things radically too, I guess, would wifidabba remain competitive in face of that?
Is wifidabba similar to something that https://starry.com is doing?
Is it the same tech Emrod is deploying in New Zealand? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24422897
Thanks and all the best!
As someone passionate about this space, I'll continue to keep an eye on your progress.