3 ms·

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that your argument was wrong. For Iridium, the total bandwidth per satellite is really really low (like 28.8? Newer ones might be h

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that your argument was wrong. For Iridium, the total bandwidth per satellite is really really low (like 28.8? Newer ones might be higher), and they had to put them slightly higher up (500 miles, I think?) to avoid drag issues since they needed bigger solar panels. The latency thing is more compared to microwave beaming, which is how most cell backhaul is done now, but you are right that the extra few hundred miles isn't critical (my head was still in geo-synch).

mikeash 10y ago
The current Iridium satellites are ridiculously slow. They were designed in the 90s for voice, and having any data capability at all is sort of an afterthought. One "call" is a whopping 2400bps. Each satellite can support 1100 calls simultaneously, but even if you ganged them all together that's still only 2.6Mbps total. Iridium NEXT is going to start launching in September and will have vastly better capabilities, up to 8Mbps per connection. Still not great compared to a terrestrial wired connection or even modern cellular connections, but a lot better. If launch costs drop significantly, you could presumably do a lot better still.