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

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

#81
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.

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.

Too lazy to watch it -- does it take into account the multiple criss-crossing satellite hops?

I watched it -- no it doesn't :) It is comparing fiberoptics latency with straight line light propagation. So the worst case scenario of non-existing inter-satellite communication could easily be worse than fiberoptics.

But I guess if the hedgefunds knew exactly which packet travels in a straight line, they could send one packet via Starlink and others via fiberoptics.

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

#82
post #54

I prefer a clean sky and earth telescopes to work instead of 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up. see: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02480-5

Yeah it sucks, but I think it is kind of inevitable that someone was going to do this, and even Iridium had similar problems. Now that we have at least 3 companies pouring in serious money, it seems likely that the economics will keep pushing for it.

My hope is that this will lower the cost of access to space with another magnitude, which should allow a serious scale up of the amount of astronomy done from space.

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Logistics - Tracking cargo, without interruption, in real-time, across the world. Shipping - Same as logistics, but across oceans. Real-Time weather data, from solar powered sensors, spread across the world. Real-Time video for tracking endangered wild-life. I think different people can come up with more ideas. The difference between satellite and cellular networks is coverage. Imagine if a nature loving adventurer f…

The latter is pretty well handled by existing devices such as SPOT:

https://www.findmespot.com/en-gb/

Edit: Starlink looks fantastic but maybe not for that particular scenario, at least not any time soon.

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

#84
post #59

The true question is: may I be able to play an online video game in the deep Sahara before the modern human civilization collapses?

50ms ping should be reasonable for most games. whippersnappers who complain about 20ms ping should watch some quakeworld or quake 3 cpma where this dude rat used to destroy everyone on 300ms.

That's an unfair comparison though. Everyone used to play with high latency. There's a clear advantage to you if your ping is 20 ms and mine is 300 ms.

Whether there's a clear advantage to having 50 vs 20 ms ping I can't answer. I'm quite certain that's an advantage I personally can't make any use of, but a Quake pro might be able to.

Also, today's pro gamers are likely at a higher skill ceiling than the best players were 10 years ago.

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

#85
post #80
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand how this is meant to lower the latency. Currently: ground satellite ground With satellite links: ground satellite satellite ground How can the latter possibly be faster? Edit: Thanks for all the responses. I'd been assuming it was a test of Starlink latency only, but if it's Starlink -> ground station -> open internet -> ISP then it would make sense how that would be slower than a pure Starlink con…

Current satellites are in a much higher orbit

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

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Count yourself lucky you don't live in either South America, Africa or Asia, where +100ms latency is more common than not. Fortunately I can count on one hand the applications that don't work with +100ms latency (not counting gaming). Usually it's the fault of the application developers (or rather the infrastructure team) where they put too low timeouts for requests rather than letting the requests go for a bit longe…

> Fortunately I can count on one hand the applications that don't work with +100ms latency (not counting gaming).

Pardon my ignorance, but what are some exampes of applications that wouldn’t work with +100 latency?

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

#87
post #55

Fantastic. I'm keenly curious on how this will work with national regulations. Having a single global ISP is very attractive on the surface and that's with the huge caveat on monopoly, but as an additional option. I'm just not sure how this will interact with some nations' policy/restrictions. Looking at this aspect very much.

It's going to be very interesting for me. I plan to live on a sailing yacht and travel the world permanently, StarLink will make my working options a lot more flexible. Presently people are forced to see out their contracts over potentially dodgy marina WiFi. The regulatory situation might get quite complicated I think, for example if you're in international waters, connected to the internet by a global ISP whose inf…

>The regulatory situation might get quite complicated I think

I think it'll be OK. Cellphone roaming works just fine for example

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

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Plantations! No longer will they be isolated little fiefdoms where the company manager is judge, jury and executioner.

I'm not familiar with these remote plantations, where can I read about them?

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

#89
post #55

Fantastic. I'm keenly curious on how this will work with national regulations. Having a single global ISP is very attractive on the surface and that's with the huge caveat on monopoly, but as an additional option. I'm just not sure how this will interact with some nations' policy/restrictions. Looking at this aspect very much.

If countries require permission to use slices of radio spectrum over their territory (I don't know to what extent), then they can control whether a radio service operates there.

Does this usually apply to space-based operations? I would guess there must be minimal coordination, or otherwise anyone space-based could degrade the infrastructure of countries in line of sight.

If such regulation exists, then satellite internet either needs to make sure they have all the permission to use their band (bands?) in particular countries, or... I guess they can just ignore the local laws, blast away, and claim no jurisdiction?

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

#90
post #44
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HFT have installed microwave relays between Chicago and New York and between London and Berlin to arbitrage on the 47% fiber optic delay between the exchanges. A LEO satellite relay serves the same purpose. I can see London to New York, New York to Tokyo fiber connections being superceded by LEO satellite.

Quite surprised why LEO for cross exchange arbitrage was not already done. Microwaves were not super with weather conditions the last time taking an arbitrary interest.

LEO sat constellations that are low enough to beat existing solutions need to be almost global to provide reliable communication anywhere.
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