The main threat to satellite internet is pigeons

"It actually worked very well, but at one point I noticed a series of interruptions - some for a second, others for a longer time," says Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey talking about a new satellite broadband service from Ilon Musk's Starlink.

The outages, according to the expert, are caused by a host of "pesky pigeons" that have "taken up residence on the dish". The little grey "dish" is on the roof of the house's kitchen. To the curious pigeon, it may seem like a modern observation base, a convenient "living room" - and sometimes it's also a great drinker.

The problem of pigeons in particular and birds in general must be taken into account as the satellite service gathers momentum, notes the source. More and more people around the world are taking advantage of the new form of communication as there is no broadband infrastructure, no cable or cellular networks in remote suburban areas.

Living in such a remote place where broadband "could only be dreamed of," Prof. Woodward enjoys being one of the beta testers of the satellite broadband Internet system.

For now, he's just exploring the problem of pigeonholing and internet connectivity outages. Starlink experts have commented that "a pigeon landing on a Starlink antenna will certainly degrade its performance."

Source: bbc