Top all-time · #7386
TMF Associates blog
Company blog · tmfassociates.com/blogbusinesseconomics
TMF Associates blog is the company blog at tmfassociates.com, writing about business and economics. Since 2011, 11 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “An analysis of Starlink economical feasibility”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
TMF Associates blog posts analyse the economics of satellite internet, SpaceX, Starlink and other low-earth-orbit constellations. HN commenters cite its cost estimates and industry analysis, though one disputes its past predictions.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- An analysis of Starlink economical feasibility3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-12-13
- Why SpaceX desperately needs a government bailout2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-03-28
What Hacker News says?
Oneweb, telesat, ViaSat, o3b (mpower), and Boeing have all announced. A study from MIT showed telesat's to be the most cost effective from the LEO bunch [1], which is important since it's not clear SpaceX has a path to revenue [2]. and if you've been following starling closely, you know that they will not have anywhere near their full deployment for over 5 years after the first launches. the entire fleet is required…
Comment linking /blog/2019/04/08/high-times/
on “SpaceX Gets FCC Approval to Sell Wireless High-Speed Home Internet from Space”Submitted Why SpaceX desperately needs a government bailout as a story · 20 points
HN discussionI know this is coming in late, but TMF just did an analysis of the economics: http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in...
Comment linking /blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in-satellite-constellations/
on “SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy”Submitted SpaceX disrupts everyone's plans again as a story · 14 points
HN discussionStreaming uses lots of bandwidth, but it's not necessarily the majority of browsing activity . High latency is painful if you're doing things like browsing Reddit. The blog you're citing claimed Starlink was getting canceled a year ago, so I'm a bit skeptical of its use as an oracle. http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2018/09/18/420000-km-funding-s... > Another hint that Starlink is going away was the statement that BFR…
Comment linking /blog/2018/09/18/420000-km-funding-secured/
on “SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy”Submitted Understanding "satellite pings" on MH370 as a story · 9 points
HN discussionNo, it's not. Streaming media is by far the largest consumer of bandwidth on the internet today. Latency doesn't matter at all for those. Please see this blog for approximate cost estimates, or the MIT study comparing leo constellations. http://tmfassociates.com/blog/category/operators/spacex/
Comment linking /blog/category/operators/spacex/
on “SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy”Submitted An analysis of Starlink economical feasibility as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSpacex could be in trouble too. http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2020/03/21/why-spacex-desperat...
Comment linking /blog/2020/03/21/why-spacex-desperately-needs-a-government-bailout/
on “OneWeb files for bankruptcy”Submitted Musk's Daily Starship Problem as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOne of my favorite industry analysts just wrote about this. You might find it interesting: http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2018/11/09/the-new-new-space-t...
Comment linking /blog/2018/11/09/the-new-new-space-thing/
on “Application for Fixed Satellite Service by SpaceX”Submitted Spectrum crisis or capex crisis? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWell, the problem is basically in the GPS receivers, which get interfered by out-of-band signals. There's really no reason for FCC to not approve Light^2. http://tmfassociates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/GPS...
Comment linking /blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/GPS-filters.jpg
on “Lightsquared network causing GPS interference.”but http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in... less so
Comment linking /blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in-satellite-constellations/
on “Starlink's network faces significant limitations, analysts find”On rewatching it I'm certainly not as impressed. Maybe I was just enjoying watching some anti-hype for once. Currently reading https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/starlink-is-a- ... which seems more optimistic but http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in... less so
Comment linking /blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in-satellite-constellations/
on “Starlink's network faces significant limitations, analysts find”
