Letâ(TM)s call a spade a spade. This, like Muskâ(TM)s venture, is really a high-profit avenue for global financial titans to use high frequency trading to distribute future wealth (or redistribute existing wealth) into the hands of the already-existing billionaire class instead of to the middle class. Precisely at a time when middle class wealth will probably take a nose dive from AI and automation. âoeNew low-latency networkâ is just a euphemism for âoethe next chapter in the HFT arms raceâ. The fact that said network can be used to serve the unserved with internet seems like a convenient and well-spun â" but by no means primary â" motivation.

Boeing wasn't first. The Comet's string of catastrophic decompression accidents due to then-unknown fuselage micro fractures overcame its "first"ness and allowed the 707 and its descendents to capture the industry for decades.