Starlink pricing out sailing cruisers — niche opportunity for ASTS?
Hey all, I'm a long-term investor in ASTS, and also happen to be working remotely on my sailboat as I hop from country to country. Contrary to popular assumptions, many of us are not wealthy, having sold our homes and most possessions to live this lifestyle while maintaining fulltime jobs from our vessels. Starlink is about to become financially prohibitive as our main source of connectivity (from $175./mo unlimited while coastal and $2/GB while offshore; increasing to $650/mo. for 500GB/mo). We may be forced to adopt this new plan if outside our home country for more than 30 days. Consider how many countries a boat may enter and leave while making their way through the Caribbean and you'll quickly understand the problem. I have a few questions for those of you who follow the technical aspects of ASTS better than I:
· With direct-to-device, can sailors reasonably use the upcoming ASTS service as a hotspot for a couple laptops and other navigational devices? Would other equipment be needed such as a special router?
· With the planned constellation, what is a reasonable estimated timeline for ASTS to have capability to offer service in the waters around North America, the Caribbean, and (later) across oceans?
· Has the company ever identified oceangoing vessels as a potential market?
· Understanding this is a niche market, do you see ASTS as a viable competitor to Starlink for ocean cruisers considering the differences in direct-to-device versus Starlink's hardware based service?