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Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

arstechnica.com

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Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#131

Post by Klathmon »

jedberg wrote: post #100
Alupis wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will Starlink even be able to legally sell internet services in China? Would they not have to comply with CCP's censorship policies and disconnect people at their will? I strongly disagree with CCP's policies here, but that's not for us to decide.

I was thinking of the opposite use case -- an American traveling to China for work and getting uncensored internet. But I mean once a Chinese citizen gets their hands on the equipment, I'm not sure how China would stop them. I suppose they could have roving bands of listening posts looking for the uplink signals. I'm sure someone could figure out a way to take payments for them. Many rich Chinese citizens already hav…

>I suppose they could have roving bands of listening posts looking for the uplink signals.

I think this is pretty likely.

In the US the FCC has a whole set of systems designed to locate interference sources [1], and I've heard stories that they're extremely good at it. They even have a whole facility in Maryland dedicated to satellite monitoring!

[1] https://www.fcc.gov/over-air-spectrum-observation-capabiliti...

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#132

Post by rubber_duck »

SEJeff wrote: post #46
xenadu02 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having this kind of network is a good thing but the idea that any kind of satellite or wireless can replace wires is just fantasy. Delivering just 10Mbps to 100 million customers is over 900 Tbps. There is absolutely no way a satellite network can clear that kind of downlink bandwidth. And that's just a tiny fraction of the market. Physical cables/fiber represent several orders of magnitude more capacity and always w…

There is absolutely no way a satellite network can clear that kind of downlink bandwidth. Evergreen comment. Encoding and compression software and hardware continue to improve. The only constant in technology is change. Will we be able to do this sort of bandwith to LEO eventually? Yes. Can we do it this very moment? No one has tried.

> Encoding and compression software

What does that have to do with bandwidth ?

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#135

Post by [deleted] »

grecy wrote: post #47
derekp7 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to see a kit from SpaceX which provides a solar powered Starlink to LTE bridge. Such kits could be installed anywhere, and provide service to places such as farm communities (install them on top of grain silos, for example). That way Starlink could be available to more customers without them having to have their own premise equipment (beyond an LTE hotspot).

I worked for the Telco that services all of Northern Canada (world's largest operating area for a telco). We installed one of the world's first 3G towers that uses only satellite as backbone. Think fly-in only communities that are thousands of kilometers away from anything in the Arctic. Many of our sites are served by radio backhaul for that reason. The sat backhaul tower is extremely expensive and temperamental. It…

[deleted]

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#136

Post by adventured »

gamblor956 wrote: post #112
arcticbull wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There aren't enough people in the US or EU that live in rural areas far from decent internet connections for Starlink to be more than a tiny fraction of the ISP market. Oh, I'm not sure that's true. 41,000,000 Americans don't have access to broadband [1]. That's the entire population of Canada and then some. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-19/where-the...

Starlink can't handle that many people, so it's a moot point that there are a theoretical 41 million potential customers. You can build out landlines far more easily than you can launch satellites; you just need the cable/fiber and some guys to dig a trench. The reason it hasn't happened is because it's not worth the financial investment without government subsidies (and this is why the federal government provides so…

> Starlink can't handle that many people, so it's a moot point that there are a theoretical 41 million potential customers.

It's a critical point in fact, because you're never going to capture an entire market, you're going to capture at best a modest fraction of the maximum market (for numerous obvious reasons).

Those 41 million potential customers are actually more like maybe 10-12 million stable or semi-stable households. The 41m is an incorrect number to go on, that represents the total number of people rather than the household count.

You're only going to get a fraction of those 10-12 million households no matter what you do. So now you're talking about probably at least 1m, up to maybe 4-6m households / accounts. Starlink can make a large dent in that.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#139

Post by DudeInBasement »

Alupis wrote: post #94
gamblor956 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep bringing that up as a common use case, but how do you propose that people in China or wartorn countries will get their hands on the modems they would need to use Starlink?

Or even afford it? People earning an equivalent of a couple USD a day, or nothing at all, aren't going to be able to afford to pay some US corporation for fast internet. Fast internet probably isn't even a concern in wartorn countries, honestly. Let's be honest - Starlink is almost exclusively going to be used by people living in rural areas within developed nations.

Implying the US government won't pay for the cost of an open internet where people can search for 'bad people square'

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#140

Post by gregmac »

tetha wrote: post #105
hesdeadjim wrote: post #53

Anyone complaining about this has never experienced the frustration of rural living when it comes to internet. This is absolutely amazing, and it will just get better. Even a reliable 10mbps would be a godsend in many places.

Reliable 10mbps is a stable full hd stream and 5ish mbps to spare. Easily one stable video call or two at lower quality. It'll be annoying if you want to download the latest AAA shooter coming in at dozens and dozens of gigabytes, sure. But you can do a lot at 10mbps as 1-2 people needing the uplink. That's really nice.

If you're already used to scheduling this overnight, having it done in only one night is going to be a significant improvement.
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