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FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

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Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#41

Post by pmorici »

neo4sure wrote: post #25
bpd1069 wrote: post #4

This is monumental - I claim every major advance in communication technology immediately precedes a major progress for society. This will make the 'Internet' truly global and ubiquitous. So excited for the developing world.

I would like to know how this technology will affect the great firewall of China, does anyone have any ideas?

Probably not really a factor. Countries were the government wants to control the Internet or communications in general will outlaw the possession of sat-com equipment if they can't get adequate control over it through some other means.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#42

Post by foota »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #38
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #34

Please tell me that this means Comcast will go out of business. Oh man. The excitement I would feel at watching them go down...

Good luck with those ping times if you're a gamer.

I believe they plan to improve upon current satelite internet latency by using lower satelites.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#43

Post by avtar »

celticninja wrote: post #30
LeoPanthera wrote: post #8

Do they have to get a license from every country in which they intend to operate?

No, you need to get authorisation to launch a payload based on where your company is headquartered.

I'm assuming the parent was asking if licenses are required to provide service to people in other countries.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#44

Post by hesdeadjim »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #38
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #34

Please tell me that this means Comcast will go out of business. Oh man. The excitement I would feel at watching them go down...

Good luck with those ping times if you're a gamer.

Their satellites will be low-earth orbit and have latencies ~50-70ms supposedly. Current internet satellite systems are much, much higher in orbit and thus have horrendous lag.

What remains to be seen is what packet loss will be like with environmental disturbances. That latency is perfectly fine for gaming, but bursts of 20%+ packet loss will quickly flip it back to "sucks for gaming" territory while still being perfectly fine for browsing or Netflix.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#45

Post by greglindahl »

bri3d wrote: post #15
ryanlol wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a sad state of affairs if this FCC approval is a major advance in communication technology.

As many of us learned from the unauthorized Swarm Technologies satellites the other week, the FCC approve satellite launches. So this is effectively SpaceX getting the final sign-off they need to launch this service - I think that can count as an advance. I think there are a lot of arguments to be made about the world-changing nature of this project but I'm not sure FCC approval is the best one to downplay.

Did you notice the part of the article that talked about this being a conditional approval, not the final one?

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#46

Post by linkmotif »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #38
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #34

Please tell me that this means Comcast will go out of business. Oh man. The excitement I would feel at watching them go down...

Good luck with those ping times if you're a gamer.

If this turns Comcast into a niche provider for gamers then Comcast is definitely over.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#47

Post by walrus01 »

kbaker wrote: post #13
walrus01 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both, I think. I would be surprised if there is not a higher-bandwidth, larger, more expensive high gain rooftop CPE which can be used by a small ISP/WISP in a remote area. They would use that for their uplink to the internet and then distribute access locally via point to multipoint 5 GHz radio systems, GPON fiber, whatever is feasible.

Also, remote LTE towers could provide cellular connectivity anywhere.

yes, fixed wireless LTE (baicells, other competing LTE based products for WISPs), or traditionalmobile wireless... Whatever local methods are possible to distribute service from an islanded ISP's local 'core' routers. As an example an ISP in a town in Nunavut that was previously dependent on C-band geostationary satellite capacity.

When I say 'islanded' ISP I mean an ISP that has no access to terrestrial point to point microwave, or fiber, to reach any sort of upstreams or major IX points. Either physically islanded (such as an ISP on the island of Nauru) or somewhere in a terestrial location, but logically islanded because it would cost at minimum several million dollars to build PTP microwave or fiber to the nearest medium sized city. One example might be any of the communities on Hudson Bay which are fly-in access only.

In previous discussions of the spaceX system, I have mentioned o3b as an example of a new, clean sheet of paper design satellite network that people should familiarize themselves with. The ordinary internet user will rarely if ever see an o3b terminal, since it is at minimum about $45,000 in hardware costs and is a pair of 1.8 meter motorized, multiple axis tracking antennas, modems, BUC + SSPA, etc. o3b is intended for high capacity trunk links to replace a setup like a 6.3 meter Ku-band antenna and dedicated geostationary transponder KHz.

Satellite architecture wise one of the interesting things of the spaceX plan is that the satellites will be in polar orbits (orbital inclinations anywhere from 82 to 105 degrees, not sure exactly). Whereas o3b orbits its satellites at low inclinations around the equator, meaning that their effective coverage area reaches from +/- 45 degrees latitude only.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#48

Post by Retric »

nradov wrote: post #28
neo4sure wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to know how this technology will affect the great firewall of China, does anyone have any ideas?

Not much effect. The Chinese government will prohibit import and possession of the ground terminals. Smugglers will bring in a few but not enough to really bypass the Great Firewall for many people.

If you can get a 1Gbps up-link and VPN within China that's going to be harder to track down and could service a lot of people.

However, I suspect SpaceX will however allow China to monitor/limit connections. Further, China has a lot more power to crack down on purely internal operations would deter many.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#49

Post by dmurray »

wongarsu wrote: post #32
csdreamer7 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Latency could beat fiber Where did you get that information? The last article I read (I believe TechCrunch) said the latency would be somewhat slower then cable (which isn't bad).

Both is kind of correct. I can't find the interview right now, but to paraphrase Elon's math: you have ~2 ms from earth to satellite + ~2 ms from satellite to earth + travel time throught the satellite network (which happens at speed of light in vacuum + routing delays). Normal fiber travels at the speed of light in fiber (which is significantly lower than speed of light in vacuum), and usually takes a route signifia…

> Normal fiber travels at the speed of light in fiber (which is significantly lower than speed of light in vacuum), and usually takes a route signifiantly longer than a straight line

A rule of thumb is that the speed of light in fibre is 2/3 the speed of light in air, or in a vacuum.

Re: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services

#50

Post by walrus01 »

Retric wrote: post #48
nradov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not much effect. The Chinese government will prohibit import and possession of the ground terminals. Smugglers will bring in a few but not enough to really bypass the Great Firewall for many people.

If you can get a 1Gbps up-link and VPN within China that's going to be harder to track down and could service a lot of people. However, I suspect SpaceX will however allow China to monitor/limit connections. Further, China has a lot more power to crack down on purely internal operations would deter many.

The problem is twofold from a China perspective:

a) the rooftop CPE needs to be reasonably large and have high gain to be used effectively, and needs clear unobstructed line of sight to as much of the sky and horizon as possible.

and

b) It needs to transmit, it will transmit in very known frequency ranges, and the chinese authorities have plenty of budget to buy portable spectrum analyzers, horn antennas and to reach people how to use them. It only takes a couple of hours maximum to reach somebody how to use a portable spectrum analyzer to physically locate and identify transmitters in almost any band.

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