Satellite internet services like Elon Musk's Starlink won't make giant undersea cables extinct, experts say

Industry experts say that the extinction of giant undersea telecoms cables won't be caused by satellite internet constellations.

Over the past year, thousands of satellites have been launched into space to build internet service for people on Earth. Currently, Starlink has about 2,000 satellites in the air, and plans to have 42,000 by mid-2027. More than 400 satellites have already been launched by OneWeb, while Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation plans to put more than 3000 satellites in the sky.

There are more than 400 internet cables.

Satellite internet systems target individual homes, businesses, and communities in rural, underserved, and remote locations, unlike undersea cables, which can connect entire continents.

Brian Lavall, a senior director at Ciena, said that satellite internet networks and undersea cables were not intended to compete against each other.

Satellite networks are like on-ramps to highways with the highways being the submarine networks, he told Insider.

Satellite internet access is not likely to overtake undersea cable infrastructure in our lifetime because they are not intended to compete.

Howard Kidorf, managing partner of undersea telecoms consultancy Pioneer consulting, said that satellite networks posed no threat to the undersea cables.

He told Insider that the satellite constellations are the game-changer when it comes to delivering traffic to underserved regions.

If a satellite network already serves a particular area, users don't need an uplink kit to get online. It takes weeks or months to lay an underwater internet cable, and that's not including the planning process before, which can take up to two years because permitting, environmental, and regulatory hurdles need to be jumped.

Satellite systems are expensive. Starlink would need up to $30 billion in investment to become a viable business according to Musk. Kidof said that submarine cables are cheaper than the rest of the industry.

In January, a volcanic eruption and a wave caused a severing of the island's undersea internet cable, cutting off the country's communication links to the rest of the world. The internet was restored by Starlink after the cable was repaired.

Even if Starlink had been up and running before the eruption, it might not have helped maintain the connection.

He said that the volcanic eruption could adversely affect or block communications between satellites and ground stations, even if you had sufficient satellite bandwidth.