Musk files to provide Internet service from space

Post by greglindahl » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 2:43 AM UTC

tdaltonc wrote: post #45

greglindahl wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that countries have not succeeded in stopping satellite phone users within their borders... for example, the Taliban in Afghanistan use satellite phones extensively.

Are those phone companies breaking the law when they let the call on to their network?

Post by notatoad » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 2:47 AM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #44

geomark wrote: post #32

From the article: "SpaceX would need permission from countries to operate the service, a process that could be difficult, if not impossible." Yep. To operate in many countries an ISP has to block access to a lot of content. It differs greatly from country-to-country. Would they really get involved in that? That would mean taking orders from governments all over the world and implementing blocks per those orders. Or w…

It's pretty easy to ignore laws from space. Reference satellite TV in the middle east. Al-Jazeera is banned in many countries, but still has high penetration as users just ignore the laws. Saudi Arabia has an outright ban on satellite television... yet 97% of Saudis have access to satellite television. [1] Iran also bans satellite television, yet more than 70 percent of people Tehran watch banned satellite channels.…

Post by roamingryan » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 2:48 AM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #24

I wonder how it would compare to Exede Satellite service. I have Exede, it's the only thing available here in High Desert :( The speed is very good for what it is, I am getting 16-20 mbps down and 3mbps up. But, the latency is a huge issue for me. Most servers, even once in US, ping at 800ms, this makes it such a pain to do any kind of SSH server admin! With low orbit devices I would imagine the latency should be bet…

Post by roamingryan » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 2:51 AM UTC

dangrossman wrote: post #27

x0054 wrote: post #24

I wonder how it would compare to Exede Satellite service. I have Exede, it's the only thing available here in High Desert :( The speed is very good for what it is, I am getting 16-20 mbps down and 3mbps up. But, the latency is a huge issue for me. Most servers, even once in US, ping at 800ms, this makes it such a pain to do any kind of SSH server admin! With low orbit devices I would imagine the latency should be bet…

> With low orbit devices I would imagine the latency should be better, I am guessing, but how much better. Your satellite's 22,000 miles above the earth. If you were directly under it, round trip latency would be 236ms. If these satellites are 684 miles up, and you were directly under one, round trip latency would be just 7ms. The distance between satellites, and between the satellites and whatever ground stations ac…

Post by roamingryan » Wed, Jun 10, 2015, 2:53 AM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #30

apkessl1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. The vast majority of satellite communications today are conducted via geostationary orbit, 35,786 km above the earth. This is the distance at which a satellite orbiting around the equator moves with the same velocity as the surface of the earth, keeping the satellite in a fixed position. This is good for communicating via the ground, since you can just set up your dish pointing in the direction of the…

Hmm, interesting. Well, I have Exede Satellite service as my ISP (best I can get) and my best latency, to any server, is 800ms. The way I figure it, 35,786 km / 300 miles per ms would be 120ms up * 4 for the round trip. So that's 480ms, plus another 20ms-100ms to a google or another large server. So that's theoretical latency of 600ms, so where are the other 200ms of latency coming from! :( I am wondering because I m…