Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 540 posts

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#241

Post by jamesrcole »

vacri wrote: post #209
geuis wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this is just a phase. I don't have any hard stats at the moment to back it up, so it's just a feeling. Internet culture is still very young. At least in the US based on the election last week, the majority of people 18-25 voted progressive in most states. These are people who have never known the world without internet access. I guess that the people who voted the other way are folks who have transitioned i…

> the majority of people 18-25 voted progressive in most states This is entirely normal - the young like things to change, the old do not. This voting pattern well predates the internet. > I believe that in general, younger people have become better at filtering out bullshit because they've had access to much more information I disagree. It's about the same as it always has been. Yellow journalism exists now, just as…

> If the internet stopped people from falling for bullshit

the person you're replying to didn't make such a strong claim.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#242

Post by Rebelgecko »

lettergram wrote: post #39
blurbleblurble wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seems so expensive for such a short lifespan

I'm curious if they can launch multiple at once. I assume they can, and on top of that, once they can reuse rockets My guess is the cost might be as little as a million ( or less ) for a satellite in orbit. That would be, what, $9 billion? That sounds like a lot, until you realize they can spread that cost over 2-3 years and have millions (if not billions) of people paying for internet. This would replace cellphone p…

I'm not an RF person, but I don't think this will be practical for cell phones in the near future. Smart phone batteries barely make it through the day as is, and inverse square laws aren't on our side when it comes to space (even low earth orbit). My phone would last about an hour if it was transmitting at 10 watts

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#243

Post by h1d »

segmondy wrote: post #220
katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Can we get free clean drinking water first? That is more of a problem than free internet.

He doesn't have to build business in parallel with the world's priority. Why not ask Apple to make schools instead?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#244

Post by zhaphod »

trhway wrote: post #71

and when Musk puts into orbit gigantic solar panels beaming down the energy i wonder how the typical anti-solar-energy argument "Sun isn't always shining" would sound then :)

You should Google for what Elon thinks about space-based solar energy.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#245

Post by samfisher83 »

lanna wrote: post #26
whiddershins wrote: post #2

I don't understand the math. 800 satellites at 23 gbps seems to be able to provide 1 gbps to 18,400 connections at any given time. This seems to be many magnitudes off from what would be needed to have any impact. What am I missing?

nobody uses their connection at full capacity 100% of the time

What if everyone starts streaming 4k?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#246

Post by JKCalhoun »

katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Who said anything about it being free?

And, increasingly, I'm not so sure the internet has been a good thing all told.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#248

Post by gozur88 »

icehawk219 wrote: post #152

Something I find interesting about this: what does it mean for countries who monitor and filter/block content (think China)? Presumably since this isn't using their national infrastructure they would lose all control of it, no? I wonder how those countries would respond to SpaceX wanting to let their citizens use the service. Unless I'm missing something it seems to me like they wouldn't really be able to stop it.

Most likely SpaceX will do what those governments require. It's trying to charge for the service, after all, and that means going through normal financial channels.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#249

Post by leereeves »

hackuser wrote: post #225
andrewksl wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right: Knowledge shouldn't be the end goal, but I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Consider that for many people on Earth, getting access to the internet takes them from the knowledge shared amongst the members of their community to the collective knowledge of world. That's quite a leap, and I'd argue that having to read flat-earther nonsense once in a while is a price…

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

Somehow calling the chief political adviser to the most powerful person in the world-elect "fringe" doesn't seem accurate.

Perhaps corporate media has defined the Overton window for so long that we've come to believe that they speak for the mainstream, even when millions of people send a clear message that that is not true.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#250

Post by mycall »

katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

As China proved, it is easy to blow up satellites. I don't know how reliable this will be under global pressure.
Post reply on HN