Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would think in Europe even on the top of Jungfraujoch you will have better performance from a 5G link.
Not in Scotland it won't.
Where in Scotland? There’s 5G almost everywhere.
First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
101–110 of 208 posts
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a standard a few years ago IIRC, EasyMesh. I even bought a kit that supported it. https://www.netgear.com/au/home/wifi/mesh/mk62/ I was most pissed off when I bought another (orbi?) kit from the same vendor a couple of years later and it didn't support easymesh, and wasn't compatible at all. Does seem to be a mess!
Mesh is a mess because the government, mobile device manufacturers and cellular carriers all want you on a centralized cellular system. Money is made selling cellular plans, cellular data, cellular carrier based device distribution (especially in the US, where most devices are carrier-acquired IIRC). Google in particular don't want to encourage non-centralized models, because their whole Android-shall-prevent-Apple-f…
Mesh is a mess because meshes do not, in fact, work very well.
You set up a mesh network to provide community internet access to an underserved community? 99.9% of traffic will be going to or from the node that connects to the internet at large.
That means that although notionally adding a node to the network adds more bandwidth to the network, in practice that's only true if the new node happens to add extra bandwidth at a bottleneck.
And if everyone aims their directional antennas at the egress node, to avoid this? You've just reinvented the centralised network.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#103From the headline, I had hoped that they were smaller Starlink satellites that no longer spoil the night sky so much. I haven't heard from this topic for a long time. Except that there is a darker coating for the newer satellites. Does anyone know how long the individual satellites are in operation before they are sent back to the Earth's atmosphere to have hot fun there?
Have you ever actually had the night sky spoiled by a Starlink?
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#104The headline should say "mini dish". Currently it can be confused with "mini satellite".
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have at least three Kuiper launches booked in mid-2025, that’s not far off! It’s awesome that they have the flexibility to choose different launch partners and can use the most reliable and flight proven technology. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon...
3 launches in mid-2025 isn't really all that promising an indicator for a constellation that needs to launch thousands of satellites. They'd need signs of an extreme ramp up in launches coming, particularly since so many of these earlier launches will have to be on external providers like ULA and ArianeSpace, who are already running delays, need to build entire rockets each time and have little experience with high l…
They indicated previously they changed their mind about using Falcon 9 and Starship.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#106I plan to work and travel in Europe for 1.5 months this summer and I hope they will release it soon. Hotel/AirBnB wifi is often unstable and unreliable - you never know if Zoom will work or not. With Starlink I will have backup and at minimum will be able to take calls in the car. We will have rental car so planned to get regular Starlink but this one will be much better option.
Depending on what you mean by "Europe" (Madrid? Waldhufen? A bunch of cabins in the north of Sweden? A random beach on Rhodes?), 4G/5G coverage is pretty good. Local SIMs are usually affordable, and thanks to the EU, roaming comes with a lot of things included. As a reference, I have a 20eur/month pay as you go plan from Free (France) that gets me unlimited 5G, calls, messages in France, and unlimited calls and messa…
I can confirm Free offer is pretty good. Just keep in mind that after some time outside of France (like 6 month?) sim will stop working, but you can of course always register new one.
Also anyone can buy and activate Free esim outside of France.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#107From the headline, I had hoped that they were smaller Starlink satellites that no longer spoil the night sky so much. I haven't heard from this topic for a long time. Except that there is a darker coating for the newer satellites. Does anyone know how long the individual satellites are in operation before they are sent back to the Earth's atmosphere to have hot fun there?
Have you ever actually had the night sky spoiled by a Starlink?
I've seen a chain of satellites flare with the naked eye once, but as I'm not much into astronomy it was just a curiosity I looked up after the fact. I suspect astronomers don't care for Starlink "photo bombing" their observations.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#108Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#109For anyone wondering, these are the sizes in modern units:
Starlink Standard: 59.5cm x 38cm, Starlink Mini: 29cm x 25cm
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mesh is a mess because the government, mobile device manufacturers and cellular carriers all want you on a centralized cellular system. Money is made selling cellular plans, cellular data, cellular carrier based device distribution (especially in the US, where most devices are carrier-acquired IIRC). Google in particular don't want to encourage non-centralized models, because their whole Android-shall-prevent-Apple-f…
Mesh is a mess because meshes do not, in fact, work very well. You set up a mesh network to provide community internet access to an underserved community? 99.9% of traffic will be going to or from the node that connects to the internet at large. That means that although notionally adding a node to the network adds more bandwidth to the network, in practice that's only true if the new node happens to add extra bandwid…
Yeah, with current consumption being "everyone wants a global DNS and global network access" it's semi-pointless. But that's just a chicken and egg problem. All of Wikipedia, libgen, thingiverse, open source packages, etc. can be locally cached somewhat trivially. Most oldschool games will run P2P fine over arbitrary networks. That's quite powerful indeed. Now we just need some localtalk apps (reinvent 'talk' and BBSs and get people off Failbook) and there will be users. Also, piracy can be normalized in a social way instead of the current situation so people can actually, you know, discuss and appreciate art. A killer app may be sharing your CCTV with people, so the community as a whole can more readily resist bad actors. Perhaps a starter node could be a bit of media to pick up wirelessly on your way to your commute, so you have a kind of protected local distribution that's censorship free and surveillance costs substantially more than with centralized networks. Next, bring back Fidonet! Haha. Maybe one too many red wines...