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SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

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Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#11

Post by DoingIsLearning »

kiba wrote: post #6
barbegal wrote: post #5

This is only a dozen users per active starlink satellite. I wonder how many customers each satellite can actually support in terms of both available bandwidth and the ability for the phased arrays on the satellite to target the customer. I can't really see how Spacex will scale their system to reach the millions of customers they need to cover the costs of launching and maintaining all those satellites.

It's literally still in testing?

GP is not questioning the feasibility of Starlink, yes you can make it work, yes you can provide 60Mbps links. But there is physical limit per satellite, so all of this goes out the window beyond maybe a few million users?

If you create all this infrastructure (with the impact it has) to then just serve a couple million people then this service will be unaffordable for mortals and limited to the wealthy and most likely the military. [0]

[0]https://spacenews.com/u-s-army-signs-deal-with-spacex-to-ass...

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#12

Post by mjevans »

pmontra wrote: post #10
mrauha wrote: post #3

I'm in the (slow) process of acquiring and fitting a sailboat for living at remote places. While I acknowledge that the cheapening of satellite internet will be nice, practical, and make my plans more realizable money-wise, I'm also a bit sad on what this implies to the taking a real distance to the information overloaded society.

I'm not sure this is for you, if you plan to move your boat: https://www.starlink.com/faq > Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address? > Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell. > Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a sat…

I wonder if they'll reserve a segment for global use, probably at higher expense. I could see a lower tier strata that requires planning but allows for relocation on a planned schedule.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#13

Post by kornbattery »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #7

What is the theoretical limit of the system they have planned? How many people can it support? I’ve added my email to the waiting list. :)

Each satellite is said to have ~20 gbit/s usable bandwidth, and they're launching tens of thousands of them. The answer should be "a lot"

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#14

Post by psaux »

I see comments on latency every so often when Starlink come ups. I would love some clarity on how satellite connectivity is expected to perform. Example: Streaming services will be great, but syn ack dependent SAAS apps have to be optimized for local cache and data retrieval? What ways are they looking to overcome latency? I could soap box, but this community is much smarter than me.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#15

Post by andy_ppp »

psaux wrote: post #14

I see comments on latency every so often when Starlink come ups. I would love some clarity on how satellite connectivity is expected to perform. Example: Streaming services will be great, but syn ack dependent SAAS apps have to be optimized for local cache and data retrieval? What ways are they looking to overcome latency? I could soap box, but this community is much smarter than me.

LEO leads to very little latency about 20-40 ms.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#16

Post by db48x »

psaux wrote: post #14

I see comments on latency every so often when Starlink come ups. I would love some clarity on how satellite connectivity is expected to perform. Example: Streaming services will be great, but syn ack dependent SAAS apps have to be optimized for local cache and data retrieval? What ways are they looking to overcome latency? I could soap box, but this community is much smarter than me.

This video has a good simulation of the latency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m05abdGSOxY

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#17

Post by nickik »

pmontra wrote: post #10
mrauha wrote: post #3

I'm in the (slow) process of acquiring and fitting a sailboat for living at remote places. While I acknowledge that the cheapening of satellite internet will be nice, practical, and make my plans more realizable money-wise, I'm also a bit sad on what this implies to the taking a real distance to the information overloaded society.

I'm not sure this is for you, if you plan to move your boat: https://www.starlink.com/faq > Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address? > Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell. > Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a sat…

Users have already shown that you can move the dish and Starlink doesn't block it. However they might in the future.

They are already testing Starlink on planes and those are clearly moving.

A dedicated product for boats and planes is certainty on its way. Understandably to do capacity planning, they are focusing on stationary at first.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#18

Post by lgats »

pmontra wrote: post #10
mrauha wrote: post #3

I'm in the (slow) process of acquiring and fitting a sailboat for living at remote places. While I acknowledge that the cheapening of satellite internet will be nice, practical, and make my plans more realizable money-wise, I'm also a bit sad on what this implies to the taking a real distance to the information overloaded society.

I'm not sure this is for you, if you plan to move your boat: https://www.starlink.com/faq > Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address? > Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell. > Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a sat…

Beta users on Reddit indicate the service shuts off 90 miles from the home location

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#19

Post by TaylorAlexander »

ogre_codes wrote: post #4
threeseed wrote: post #2

Here is a link to some benchmarks: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/i9w09n/list_of_co...

I'm not sure benchmarks on an unloaded beta system are extremely useful. Once they add more satellites it may go down, but more users counter that... It's decent early indicator, but hard to say long term if it's useful.

When Verizon 4G first launched I had a 45mbps connection all over silicon valley. Then adoption spread and my data rates on the same device dropped to 5mbps. Loading matters!

Re: SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users

#20

Post by TaylorAlexander »

psaux wrote: post #14

I see comments on latency every so often when Starlink come ups. I would love some clarity on how satellite connectivity is expected to perform. Example: Streaming services will be great, but syn ack dependent SAAS apps have to be optimized for local cache and data retrieval? What ways are they looking to overcome latency? I could soap box, but this community is much smarter than me.

The satellites are very low altitude. They are not geosynchronous which would require them to be very far from the earth's surface. Instead they orbit at low altitude and the antenna base station uses a complex antenna arrangement (a phased array) to follow the satellites as they move rapidly overhead. Once the inter-satellite laser links are fully deployed, starlink will be the fastest way to ping a signal to the other side of the planet.
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