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[–] qwop 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago  (edited ago)

The SpaceX project is called Starlink, and it will use the Ku and Ka bands, which are in the mm wave length. These bands have already been used for satellite communication previously, so it does work. The atmosphere only attenuates the signals, it does not block them. So it's just a matter of transmission power and antenna gain, and the signal can be made to pass through the atmosphere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation)

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[–] VOALTRON 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Starlink satellites would orbit at ​1⁄30 to ​1⁄105 of the height of geostationary orbits, and thus offer more practical Earth-to-sat latencies of around 25 to 35 ms, comparable to or exceeding existing cable or fiber networks[49] (although transmitting a signal halfway around the globe takes at least 67 ms at the speed of light).

Wow. That's a seriously ambitious project! It looks like it's still a few years away though.

While details are lacking, it appears that they plan to make this work by utilizing powerful earth based antennas, mounted to some type of base station. And from there, utilize standard 5G cell transmissions.