I’d be ecstatic if ISPs laid more fiber where I live. But I’d be even happier if they laid any sort of internet cables at all to the outskirts of towns. Back where my family used to live (smaller town) there were plenty of houses on the outskirts of town that don’t have any internet unless they pay out the nose for satellite. It’s literally not worth the ISP’s money to lay any sort of cable out that way since there isn’t enough customer density for the amount of cable they’d need to lay.

I wonder if the launches produce more pollution overall than the facilities, trucks, excavators, and other equipment required to manufacture, lay, and maintain fiber.

i wish packet radio was fast enough that we could avoid isp's altogether. not counting aredn since you need LOS to a nearby i-gate

Thats like saying wifi is just an excuse to avoid running some ethernet

the fact that there has to be a shitton of them is the clutter. Deorbiting them after their service life doesn't change the fact that at any one point there's a fuckton of satellites up there, messing up astronomy. And this is just the first of what will probably be several constellations.