Why SpaceX is Making Starlink

This video[1] speculates that Starlink will achieve lower latency than fibre Internet. Latency-sensitive industries like finance are very willing to pay a lot for improved latency. [1] ▶ this video

Right, so if you can't go through the crust then going up would be another option. Over long enough of a distance, say NYC to London (or even farther), the overhead of going up first and then a "straight" line horizontally (it's not completely straight because it has relay between the satellites via LOS laser but each arc would be fairly long) and back down would be shorter than a line following the curvature. (Edited: This is wrong. I had conflated the lower latency with shorter distance as others have pointed out.) BTW, I want to give full credit to my source: ▶ this video It also does a much better job of explaining it than I have but it is a convincing argument for how Starlink can be useful and why traders would be willing to pay a lot for it.

Light travels 47% slower in a fiber optic cable than it does in the vacuum of space. [1] [1] ▶ this video (the whole video is worth watching, but that timestamp answers your specific question.

▶ this video According to this Engineering Explained video, it may be possible to achieve a lower latency using Star Link than over fiber if the points are far enough. People like high frequency traders might be willing to pay a ton for such a thing.

Real Engineering has an interesting video on why it would be useful for firms trading internationally ▶ this video

Someone smarter than I made this, which you may or may not agree with... "Why SpaceX is Making Starlink" ▶ this video TL;DR -- satellites can be faster than cables in certain cases

Real engineering made a video on it: ▶ this video I recommend watching. The channel does really good explanations.