Live data from Hacker News

SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

testmy.net

21–30 of 325 posts

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#21
post #5
post #2

Speed is variable, capacity can be improved. The bigger question re Starlink is latency, which this test doesn't show.

I saw these Starlink speed test results 2 weeks ago: https://tweakers.net/i/xDBb34kfMAju3YPPMsC3iOc2gXc=/656x/fil... Seems like pretty solid latency :)

30-100ms is better than I feared, and should be generally reasonable for most uses.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#22
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would HFT even consider using it? They are located as close as possible to the exchange they operate on, not across states or halfway across the world.

But if you can access to information from an exchange halfway across the world faster than others, you can definitely trade on that.

And if you can break the speed of light, you don't need a second exchange.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#23
post #4

This is amazing. I know there will be latency issues, but for majority of web browsing, videos, etc, it shouldn't matter. We are entering the era of spacenet and the future looks bright. Imagine having devices as small as phones or set-top boxes that can directly access internet using satellites. It would lead to a revolution in many industries.

In my experience (multiple clients in rural area) low speed (1.5 Mbps) with low (50 to 80 ms) latency will outperform 40Mbps/800 ms latency connections for video.

Web browsing, of course, isn't really affected by latency.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#24
post #4

This is amazing. I know there will be latency issues, but for majority of web browsing, videos, etc, it shouldn't matter. We are entering the era of spacenet and the future looks bright. Imagine having devices as small as phones or set-top boxes that can directly access internet using satellites. It would lead to a revolution in many industries.

I'm not sure that's revolutionary outside of very rural areas or in a desert.

Smart phones and set-top boxes etc can already access the internet without satellites, and often with much better latency.

What would satellites add for urban or sub-urban applications?

I do appreciate the extra competition that satellite internet brings. Especially in parts of the world with suppressed competition (like the US..) this could have huge practical effects without having to be a big deal in any technical sense.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#26
post #4

This is amazing. I know there will be latency issues, but for majority of web browsing, videos, etc, it shouldn't matter. We are entering the era of spacenet and the future looks bright. Imagine having devices as small as phones or set-top boxes that can directly access internet using satellites. It would lead to a revolution in many industries.

Could you expand on which industries will be improved? My normal life is covered entirely by 4G, with 5G now appearing. I guess you mean things like internet on planes, shipping internet, off-shore rigs? But what things can't they do at the moment because of prohibitorily slow/costly satellite internet?

Here's one: Teleoperation / autonomy in remote areas. Forestry. Mining.

Not sure how big this, objectively speaking money-wise, but for teleop/autonomy it sure does enable new things when there is true 100% coverage everywhere on earth.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#27
post #6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latency to where? One of the promises of starlink is reducing latency over mid distance - say transatlantic or even across the states, due to using vacuum rather than fibres. Will be interesting how HFT use it. Starlink network is nowhere near complete so I’d expect things to only get better (until customers start piling on)

Why would HFT even consider using it? They are located as close as possible to the exchange they operate on, not across states or halfway across the world.

Light travels 47% slower in a fiber optic cable than it does in the vacuum of space. [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/giQ8xEWjnBs?t=288 (the whole video is worth watching, but that timestamp answers your specific question.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#28
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw these Starlink speed test results 2 weeks ago: https://tweakers.net/i/xDBb34kfMAju3YPPMsC3iOc2gXc=/656x/fil... Seems like pretty solid latency :)

30-100ms is better than I feared, and should be generally reasonable for most uses.

30 is really good actually. At least for what I’m used to.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#29
post #8
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latency to where? One of the promises of starlink is reducing latency over mid distance - say transatlantic or even across the states, due to using vacuum rather than fibres. Will be interesting how HFT use it. Starlink network is nowhere near complete so I’d expect things to only get better (until customers start piling on)

If I understood it correctly Starlink doesn't send between satellites yet, only sat ground. Sat sat is a big point of starlink and when they roll that out the latency should go down, especially for starlink starlink comms I imagine.

Yes that’s a few more years before then, and the more sats the more capacity and the lower the latency.

Re: SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

#30
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw these Starlink speed test results 2 weeks ago: https://tweakers.net/i/xDBb34kfMAju3YPPMsC3iOc2gXc=/656x/fil... Seems like pretty solid latency :)

30-100ms is better than I feared, and should be generally reasonable for most uses.

anything above 100 ms is starting to get into unusable territory for quite a few applications
Post reply on HN