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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

#351

Post by pmlnr »

busterarm wrote: post #210
bargl wrote: post #45

Starlink internet is not meant to replace hard line internet. There is no getting around the physics of cable being so much cheaper/easier. Even terrestrial cell towers are more efficient and cheaper than satellites. This is 100% meant to supplement existing infrastructure not to replace it. You will almost always get cheaper and faster internet (for both you and the company providing internet) over a cable to your h…

A lot of what you're saying isn't actually true here. Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space. This drastically reduces the latency of long distance connections. We're talking NY round trip to Japan in the same time it takes NY roundtrip to the UK now. The cost of backhaul and ongoing maintenance of cables is a lot more than SpaceX launching their own satellites by an entire or…

> Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space

The what?

As far as I know c is a constant.

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

#352

Post by simonh »

macintux wrote: post #198
badloginagain wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Larger amounts of people mean more chances of exposure. Being in urban environment means higher dependence on fragile supply chains- food security is totally dependent on JIT grocery store inventories. Rural homes, by virtue of being isolated, are easier to self isolate.

However, if you’re able to work from home, you can self-isolate pretty much anywhere, and drive wherever you need to get food. If urban environments start seriously breaking down due to a food supply chain problem, rural areas won’t be safe from desperate people. Anyway, both approaches have their pros and cons, but as someone who has a fairly severe back problem and not much inclination to try to live off the grid,…

This may be a pandemic, but it’s not a zombie apocalypse.

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

#353

Post by labster »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #306
gamegod wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason we don't use space observatories as much anymore is because we have adaptive optics now and don't need them. The concerns of astronomers are real. It's not for Starlink to ruin our ability to observe the sky for all of humanity. Incredible entitlement.

You can easily turn that last part around. It's not for astronomers to ruin our ability to provide essential (and yes, internet is essential at this point) services for billions of people around the world that otherwise can't get it. Incredible entitlement. It just depends on what you value more, observing the sky, or providing internet.

What right do you have to turn that statement around? Incredible entitlement. /s

But really adaptive optics is nice, and lets us compensate for atmospheric distortions. But not light filtered by the atmosphere. Or clouds. Or daylight. And we still have to compensate for quakes and vibrations, and temperature change. It's simply just cheaper to do on land than in space.

Imagine if it wasn't an order of magnitude more expensive in space. Or imagine a large telescope array on the Moon, where you get stability, ability to repair, and no atmosphere to get in the way. With SLS and Starship, all of that starts to look possible in the next 20 years.

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

#354

Post by akalin »

pmlnr wrote: post #351
busterarm wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of what you're saying isn't actually true here. Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space. This drastically reduces the latency of long distance connections. We're talking NY round trip to Japan in the same time it takes NY roundtrip to the UK now. The cost of backhaul and ongoing maintenance of cables is a lot more than SpaceX launching their own satellites by an entire or…

> Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space The what? As far as I know c is a constant.

c is the speed of light in a vacuum

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

#355

Post by ldiracdelta »

keanebean86 wrote: post #103
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.

My grandma in rural Arkansas would get 26.4 kbps over dialup. Cell service is passable outside so she could get a house mounted antenna but the data caps are so low it's not worth it. Sat internet was crazy expensive last time I checked. Also she refuses to learn computers so I gave up trying to get her internet but that's not related to this conversation.

Maybe she's on to something with the no computers thing.

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

#356

Post by Traster »

wyldfire wrote: post #330
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.

> and it will just get better. Won't it get worse when it's generally available? More congestion on the same channel means less per-user throughput right?

And when it's at scale it'll actually have to make a profit.

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

#357

Post by CamperBob2 »

gamegod wrote: post #283
labster wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in 10 years, Starship should make it possible to put more space observatories in orbit, so it should get better for the professional astronomers eventually. It'll still suck for amateur astronomers and photographers, though. Although, with the way 2020 is going, we'll probably miss observing the asteroid that kills us all because a Starlink got in the way of the observation.

The reason we don't use space observatories as much anymore is because we have adaptive optics now and don't need them. The concerns of astronomers are real. It's not for Starlink to ruin our ability to observe the sky for all of humanity. Incredible entitlement.

Seems like dealing with satellites is a truly trivial application of "adaptive" optics.

You can't possibly expect me to believe that you have the processing power and technical know-how to remove the influence of atmospheric distortion, but that you're helpless when confronted with discrete fast-moving objects for which you have ephemerides. Sorry, that dog just don't hunt.

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

#358

Post by kibwen »

pmlnr wrote: post #351
busterarm wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of what you're saying isn't actually true here. Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space. This drastically reduces the latency of long distance connections. We're talking NY round trip to Japan in the same time it takes NY roundtrip to the UK now. The cost of backhaul and ongoing maintenance of cables is a lot more than SpaceX launching their own satellites by an entire or…

> Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space The what? As far as I know c is a constant.

The constant c is the speed of light in a vacuum. Different mediums have different speeds of light within them; in fact, it's actually possible for light to not be the fastest thing in a given medium (for more precise definitions of all those words): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

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

#359

Post by bargl »

manquer wrote: post #335
bargl wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The constellation is moving but they are moving in a formation. Meaning you have a rotation of 2-4 satellites above your head at any give time. Each satellite can service a radius the size of Wyoming. So you have a limit on the number of satellites and the number of customers per satellite. The article says 5 million in the USA. That makes sense given what I'm thinking. That's about 100,000 per state, but it's not go…

Their current plans talk about a constellation of 40,000 says. While there is limit to number of connections per sat that applies to any routing equipment really, there is not much limit to how many sats can be there . Sure spectrum is limited today ,however if 5million people use it already, other spectrum could be freed up for this purpose , if there is demand . The constellation today is not ready for high density…

This type of constellation won't be able to do it.

They are planning on picking off the users who cable has to run the furthest to off of the ISPs not the close users. If we started spreading out evenly I could see this, but while we've got the population density we do, I don't see this happening.

Each house will interfere with it's neighbor, the more they spread the easier it is.

>The constellation today is not ready for high density usage , it is not that it will never be ready .

I am no sith, I shouldn't speak in absolutes. But, I'd bet that this technology won't disrupt ISPs within 50 miles of a city. I hope it would, but I don't see that happening.

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

#360

Post by awad »

chiph wrote: post #319

If someone knows - what kind of cable does the unit use out to the antenna? My COVID project is wiring the house with Cat6 and it might be worthwhile putting an enclosed drop out on the deck for the future.

According to this Reddit thread, the dish only has one cable presumably with POE

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/hqu7p6/data_minin...

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