5 ms·

But isn't it still cheaper to lay fiber cables? For example, 23*4400 = 101Tbps, but I guess many of the satellites will end up above water, so maybe around 60T

But isn't it still cheaper to lay fiber cables? For example, 23*4400 = 101Tbps, but I guess many of the satellites will end up above water, so maybe around 60Tbps. One cable by google did that for 300mil$ [1] Maybe it is good for last mile connectivity, which is probably a good target, but only for less populated areas where LTE isn't available. [1] https://www.extremetech.com/internet/231074-googles-faster-undersea-cable-goes-online-with-60-tbps-of-bandwidth https://www.extremetech.com/internet/231074-googles-faster-u...

gibybo 10y ago
Yeah the cost advantage is entirely in last mile connectivity. It doesn't really make sense to compare the cost of a single cable to the cost of the end customer getting a connection. LTE is a much better comparison, but I think the cost will actually be pretty similar or cheaper than LTE (see my other post for napkin math) and cover a lot of areas/applications that LTE can't.
gallerdude 10y ago
Maybe it's a lot quicker - Google Fiber has been taking forever. Not that rocket science is easy, but it's probably a lot quicker than striking the earth.
btym 10y ago
Laying fiber isn't going to get your Tesla connected.
- cracell 10y ago
  Interesting idea but wouldn't a satellite to car connection be pretty unreliable? Since the line of sight would often have things in the way. I'm assuming trees, bridges, and being in a garage would interfere with it.
  - mentat 10y ago
    Yet GPS works.
    - grzm 10y ago
      AIUI, GPS isn't a connection. It's broadcast, one-way communication. Also, I assume the information transferred is much lower, not much more than time and position, plus redundancy to handle things like interruptions due to landscape.
  - Tloewald 10y ago
    Well, there's going to be 800 of the suckers. There are only about 33 GPS satellites. Although 700 miles is lowish orbit, it's still above the horizon over 2000 miles away.
    - WaxProlix 10y ago
      Wow. I read this comment and thought, "This has to be bullshit." But lo and behold, the core satellite 'constellation' is only 24 satellites[1]. That's mega impressive. https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/techops/navservices/gnss/faq/gps/ https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/at...
      - Dylan16807 10y ago
        And they transmit with about 50 watts.
      - nickpsecurity 10y ago
        Look up the connection between Einstein's general relativity and GPS accuracy for more fun. Especially early on in its deployment.
        bcook 10y ago
        That's actually a myth, since the GPS satellites all experience a similar relativistic time skew. http://www.alternativephysics.org/book/GPSmythology.htm http://www.alternativephysics.org/book/GPSmythology.htm "The presence of Special and General Relativity effects has no bearing on the accuracy of GPS operation. In summary, it wouldn’t matter whether clocks aboard GPS satellites ran faster or slower than Earth’s clocks or even changed their speed each day. Just so long as the satellites’ clocks remained synchronised with each other and the time-difference relative Earth’s clocks didn’t become too large, GPS receivers would continue to calculate their correct position."
        dingaling 10y ago
  - tim333 10y ago
    I used to have a sat phone (Thuraya) and it was pretty reliable if you were outside. They don't work well inside buildings.
    - damianknz 10y ago
      You'll get around that in your home by having the satellite module thing up on your roof and a cable to your wifi router. What I don't understand about this though is the number of frequencies available to connect to all these satellites and how it might extend to ~300 million people (let alone a billion potentially).
      - tim333 10y ago
        I think they focus a beam on each user in turn and so don't need different frequencies.
sathackr 10y ago
Can't lay fiber to the entire planet for $300mil
ooqr 10y ago
They're presumably aiming for some amount of economy of scale by using their own rocketry service. Dollar for dollar comparison doesn't account for the fact that they're investing some of that cost into further rocketry development.

gibybo 10y ago

Yeah the cost advantage is entirely in last mile connectivity. It doesn't really make sense to compare the cost of a single cable to the cost of the end customer getting a connection. LTE is a much better comparison, but I think the cost will actually be pretty similar or cheaper than LTE (see my other post for napkin math) and cover a lot of areas/applications that LTE can't.

gallerdude 10y ago

Maybe it's a lot quicker - Google Fiber has been taking forever. Not that rocket science is easy, but it's probably a lot quicker than striking the earth.

btym 10y ago

Laying fiber isn't going to get your Tesla connected.

cracell 10y ago
Interesting idea but wouldn't a satellite to car connection be pretty unreliable? Since the line of sight would often have things in the way. I'm assuming trees, bridges, and being in a garage would interfere with it.
- mentat 10y ago
  Yet GPS works.
  - grzm 10y ago
    AIUI, GPS isn't a connection. It's broadcast, one-way communication. Also, I assume the information transferred is much lower, not much more than time and position, plus redundancy to handle things like interruptions due to landscape.
- Tloewald 10y ago
  Well, there's going to be 800 of the suckers. There are only about 33 GPS satellites. Although 700 miles is lowish orbit, it's still above the horizon over 2000 miles away.
  - WaxProlix 10y ago
    Wow. I read this comment and thought, "This has to be bullshit." But lo and behold, the core satellite 'constellation' is only 24 satellites[1]. That's mega impressive. https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/techops/navservices/gnss/faq/gps/ https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/at...
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      And they transmit with about 50 watts.
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      Look up the connection between Einstein's general relativity and GPS accuracy for more fun. Especially early on in its deployment.
      - bcook 10y ago
        That's actually a myth, since the GPS satellites all experience a similar relativistic time skew. http://www.alternativephysics.org/book/GPSmythology.htm http://www.alternativephysics.org/book/GPSmythology.htm "The presence of Special and General Relativity effects has no bearing on the accuracy of GPS operation. In summary, it wouldn’t matter whether clocks aboard GPS satellites ran faster or slower than Earth’s clocks or even changed their speed each day. Just so long as the satellites’ clocks remained synchronised with each other and the time-difference relative Earth’s clocks didn’t become too large, GPS receivers would continue to calculate their correct position."
        dingaling 10y ago
- tim333 10y ago
  I used to have a sat phone (Thuraya) and it was pretty reliable if you were outside. They don't work well inside buildings.
  - damianknz 10y ago
    You'll get around that in your home by having the satellite module thing up on your roof and a cable to your wifi router. What I don't understand about this though is the number of frequencies available to connect to all these satellites and how it might extend to ~300 million people (let alone a billion potentially).
    - tim333 10y ago
      I think they focus a beam on each user in turn and so don't need different frequencies.

sathackr 10y ago

Can't lay fiber to the entire planet for $300mil

ooqr 10y ago

They're presumably aiming for some amount of economy of scale by using their own rocketry service. Dollar for dollar comparison doesn't account for the fact that they're investing some of that cost into further rocketry development.