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Right now, lack of choices. But I think when we see Musk's satellite internet service, it'll be a completely different story.

mmirate 9y ago
Bandwidth and latency aren't exactly favorable on any sort of satelite internet connection. How will the Elon Musk brand change this?
- jbooth 9y ago
  The idea is lots and lots of low orbit satellites with cell-phone-like handoffs as they zip across the horizon. LEO is only 200 miles high or so, which is ~1ms for light to travel if they can make it work. Existing satellite internet goes out to geosynchronous orbit which is much, much farther away.
  - imglorp 9y ago
    Notable exception being Iridium. The wiki points out interesting design goals including coverage and doppler shifts. I do worry about 4000 new objects in orbit. We've got tons of orbital trash already. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio...
- noonespecial 9y ago
  Current satellite internet is provided by a small number of very far away satellites (geostationary). Musks plan is to use a large number of leo satellites that are much closer (and cheaper to launch and replace).
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
  I believe they are planning on an orbital altitude of between 700-800miles. I'm not a network engineer so take this all with a heavy helping of salt but I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of networked application that are dependent on extremely low latency are also relatively local(intracontinental). So given this assumption is accurate the increase in latency should be minimal for these types of applications. I've also read that the plan is for the constellation of satellites to number at 4425 satellites strong and for them to be using frequencies between 10GHz and 35GHz. FWIW SpaceX claims the networks latency to be around 35ms. Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/space...
rdtsc 9y ago
> lack of choices. Agreed. It is hard perhaps to see that in a tech hub city where there maybe multiple choices of internet or cable providers. In many areas there is only one. They can act like assholes and charge $80 for 1Mbps connection if they want.

mmirate 9y ago

Bandwidth and latency aren't exactly favorable on any sort of satelite internet connection. How will the Elon Musk brand change this?

jbooth 9y ago
The idea is lots and lots of low orbit satellites with cell-phone-like handoffs as they zip across the horizon. LEO is only 200 miles high or so, which is ~1ms for light to travel if they can make it work. Existing satellite internet goes out to geosynchronous orbit which is much, much farther away.
- imglorp 9y ago
  Notable exception being Iridium. The wiki points out interesting design goals including coverage and doppler shifts. I do worry about 4000 new objects in orbit. We've got tons of orbital trash already. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio...
noonespecial 9y ago
Current satellite internet is provided by a small number of very far away satellites (geostationary). Musks plan is to use a large number of leo satellites that are much closer (and cheaper to launch and replace).
SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
I believe they are planning on an orbital altitude of between 700-800miles. I'm not a network engineer so take this all with a heavy helping of salt but I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of networked application that are dependent on extremely low latency are also relatively local(intracontinental). So given this assumption is accurate the increase in latency should be minimal for these types of applications. I've also read that the plan is for the constellation of satellites to number at 4425 satellites strong and for them to be using frequencies between 10GHz and 35GHz. FWIW SpaceX claims the networks latency to be around 35ms. Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/space...

rdtsc 9y ago

> lack of choices. Agreed. It is hard perhaps to see that in a tech hub city where there maybe multiple choices of internet or cable providers. In many areas there is only one. They can act like assholes and charge $80 for 1Mbps connection if they want.