Post by d a v i d

You won't answer why a satellite can't bend a signal around a sphere so you act dumb about what satellites are for. 🙄
Of course cables have been historically cheaper than launching satellites, that is the point of why cables have been used to answer your original post. Satellites would cost a lot of money to put up in space. They weren't used for 99% of human data because it wasn't cost effective for that purpose compared to running cable. They were used for military and intelligence, where costs don't matter, to communicate in private networks outside of public networks. They used line of sight networking, not cost effective for 99% of human data use but perfect for militaries and such orgs who want to limit their MiM attacks with direct signals. Is this really hard to understand? Do you know why militaries have big navy boats in the ocean with lots of communication gear on them? Do you understand why the USA built Pine Gap in the middle of the Australian desert?
Data use today dwarfs data use decades ago, new technologies required. Data is worth more today than decades ago, new attack vectors emerging. Using space is becoming more cost effective as technology evolves. Cables will always be used and new satellite tech will become cheaper. Musk has NEW tech that puts 10's of thousands of little relays in space to bounce the signals around the SPHERE Earth. He has made it cheaper, he has made data accessible where laying cable is difficult like in rural areas. These new relays are disposable, if they break or malfunction, they can send new ones up but the network can adjust in the meantime because it's a mesh network unlike military line of sight networks using expensive secure satellite systems. Mesh networks aren't as secure, man in the middle attack vectors increase but for non-sensitive data like normal internet use it's fine. For highly sensitive military networking, it's not and they will continue with large expensive satellite systems where budgets don't matter. Welcome to the world where all 3 systems are in use for different reasons as technology and humanity evolves.