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Starlink Is a Big Deal

sneak.berlin

221–230 of 365 posts

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#221

What this article didn't mention is the potential for this to significantly disrupt commercial internet monopolies in regional markets. If service is $45/ month for 100GB, a lot of people will drop Comcast in a hurry.

It didn't mention it because that's not true. This is targeted for enterprise, and there are no plans to sell cheap internet at the price the antenna costs.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#222
post #6

hopefully it makes inet service on planes better

Companies like Viasat are already offering that. A couple of years ago, they were talking about how they wanted to offer free internet to all passangers (with enough bandwidth that everyone could stream HD movies, thanks to the new satellite they launched in 2017). I'm not sure how the rollout is going, though, or if the airlines want to do this. I guess the airlines can make a fortune overcharging passengers for int…

JetBlue has had ViaSat for free since 2013.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#223
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pre-starlink stuff isn’t just expensive. It’s slow, has crazy high latency, and low transfer caps (the biggest you can get for geosynchronous might be 20GB a month no matter how much you want to pay.) Really anything is better than what’s currently available in the rural US. Having grown up there I’m kind of mad that we give so much spectrum to cell companies who block people from setting up terrestrial radio net…

That's completely false. Several providers have over 100GB/mo plans.

Latency is completely true. Can’t be otherwise because speed of light is a thing.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#224
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the social impact, while likely overstated it has the possibility of making a real impact. Rural communities in upstate NY (Catskills, Adirondacks) have had their tourist season drop to ~6 weeks in the summer, basically because people can't take so much time off while being out of contact (there is limited internet and cell phone service. Not having either is the norm). Being able to work remotely from thos…

What is stopping cell providers from adding more towers/capacity to that area? Are there geographic reasons or just a matter of time and economics?

Out here it is purely economics and population density. I live in West TN and the nearest cell phone tower is 7 miles in a straight line from my house. There is one provider that works here, and a good signal is 2 bards, but usually, 1 is normal and things like 4g or LTE rarely work.

I offered $1/yr lease to the providers, all of them, to put a tower on my farm and not one of them is even a little interested.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#225
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's completely false. Several providers have over 100GB/mo plans.

Latency is completely true. Can’t be otherwise because speed of light is a thing.

The latency part is true, but the cap is not:

https://www.satelliteinternet.com/resources/unlimited-satell...

We can argue about whether latency matters for most people, but it's not going to go anywhere.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#226

Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.

SMS or email alert would be sweet. I wonder if you could just make an ical file available to avoid having to pay any costs for the messaging.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look I can't edit the comment now but this isn't the kind of information that could be collected without the warning. Especially since an address with an IP can be deanonymizing. I didn't click the "notify me" button but I imagine it's asking for either a phone number or an email. If this is truly innocent I'm sorry for my reaction, but you should be asking people first, given the current state of advertisement and s…

> Edit 2: Jesus Christ man I had no idea I was giving you my fucking address. That's a little too granular for my taste So the accuracy of the location being provided depends entirely on your device. From a website (or any other app) perspective, they simply request the client provide it's location. Now if you happen to have a strong GPS lock on your device with 5m or less accuracy, that's not something the website (…

As a matter of fact I default to explicitly turning off all location permissions. I've gone to great pains to practice clean opsec. This is effectively a forced breach. I clicked on something cool expecting to be promoted for a zip code.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#228
post #114

Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.

Oh that's great. Now I can better aim my Elon-Sattelite-fryer device. I already collected 25 old microwave ovens which I plan to operate as phased array to produce a collimated beam of microwaves directed at the satellites to fry their electronics. I might have a better chance If know the exact frequency their receivers are tuned to. Does anybody know more? The reckless littering of our precious LEO must end here!

For all the downvoters: it was a joke.

But since this is "Hacker" News it should be the perfect place to hypothesize about potential attack vectors and penetration testing.

Any rogue nation could easily endanger the whole enterprise and with the resurgence of nationalism those scenarios are more a matter of when, not if.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#229
post #126
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that's great. Now I can better aim my Elon-Sattelite-fryer device. I already collected 25 old microwave ovens which I plan to operate as phased array to produce a collimated beam of microwaves directed at the satellites to fry their electronics. I might have a better chance If know the exact frequency their receivers are tuned to. Does anybody know more? The reckless littering of our precious LEO must end here!

The FCC would like a word. Damn those billionaires and their... global high speed satellite internet access, right?

The FCC has no jurisdiction where I live.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#230
post #34

"HFT firms will be the first customers, seeking a few-millisecond reduction in the transmission of realtime data between markets. Starlink has already said as much, and I think they rely on this as their first and primary source of revenue." I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are meas…

Light in fibers travels at around 2/3rds of the speed of light, while in air or vacuum it travels at (approximately) the speed of light. So a path through space can be 50% longer, and your signal will still arrive at the same time. Consider that the distance between New York and London is ~5500km, and these satellites are only ~500km up, that gives you quite a bit of margin to be faster.

The same argument is true of WiFi over a network cable. Depends on the packet loss on the way down. You also potentially might have to send more data for security reasons too.

Also, if the satellite is halfway between them (without taking the curvature of the earth into account, assuming a flat earth and the signal only goes through one satellite), the signal still has to travel 5590 km to cross the Atlantic (at almost c). Probably a solvable problem but not a trivial one.

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