Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#1

Post by trulyrandom » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
arstechnica.com

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

#2

Post by LinuxBender » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

More useful to me would be bufferbloat [1] tests. Any starlink beta testers on HN? Also useful would be nuttcp or iperf3 tests just in case they optimized / prioritized for sites like dslreports and other speed test sites.

[1] - http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

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

#3

Post by wtallis » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

LinuxBender wrote: post #2

More useful to me would be bufferbloat [1] tests. Any starlink beta testers on HN? Also useful would be nuttcp or iperf3 tests just in case they optimized / prioritized for sites like dslreports and other speed test sites. [1] - http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

Yep. It's pretty much a given that if you want to compare Starlink to a good terrestrial ISP, you'll be disappointed. But compared to any other satellite ISP, Starlink should be impressive, especially in terms of latency. So testing and media coverage of Starlink should focus more on latency than throughput, and testing latency properly means testing latency under load.

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

#4

Post by jefft255 » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

Pings and upload speeds seem impressive (although as someone else said we'll see when under load). I come from a place (rural Canada) where a non-trival amount of people who live far away from town centers do not have access to decent internet. This will be a good alternative to existing satellite ISPs, or 5mbps (on a good day) land ISPs.

Also potentially amazing for people living off-grid.

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

#5

Post by loktarogar » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:45 PM UTC

What i'm more interested in is longer term (well, longer than a speedtest) consistency. 11mbps is fine if it's never less than 11mbps. Aiming for "20ms latency for gaming" etc is useless if the thing drops out even once in a game.

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

#6

Post by bananaface » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

Won't these speeds dramatically reduce once there are a lot of users saturating the connections?

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

#7

Post by supernova87a » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

What is the pricing?

No one ever seems to answer this all-important question...

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

#8

Post by vmception » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #7

What is the pricing? No one ever seems to answer this all-important question...

you already know why.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22940781

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

#9

Post by augusto-moura » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

bananaface wrote: post #6

Won't these speeds dramatically reduce once there are a lot of users saturating the connections?

If the network keep up in this state probably. But the plans are to launch some thousand more satellites

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

#10

Post by topkai22 » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

bananaface wrote: post #6

Won't these speeds dramatically reduce once there are a lot of users saturating the connections?

I suspect it will be really serving areas where that is unlikely to happen (rural areas and over ocean transportation).