3 ms·
Never have I ever been in a call where the latency was dictated by speed of light, since about early 1990s when phone lines went digital. There's an awful lot o
by Piskvorrr 8y ago
Never have I ever been in a call where the latency was dictated by speed of light, since about early 1990s when phone lines went digital. There's an awful lot of routing and switching along the (rather indirect) way, and each hop adds some ms to the mess. Even if the call was only Houston-transatlantic (or worse, transpacific for whatever peering reason)-Netherlands, you'd get pretty bad latency. Add the orbit-relay station-Houston leg, and I assume you'd have a bad time.
Ham radio, on the other hand - now we would be talking significant fractions of c!
- bluGill 8y agoIn the 1970s (early 80s? my memory is not good) calls sometimes went via satellite in geosynchronous orbit. Those had a lot of latency and didn't last long for that reason. ISS in low earth orbit shouldn't have much latency so long as they have a connection back down to the ground that doesn't involve other satellites.
- Piskvorrr 8y agoThat's a big if, its orbit can take it pretty much anywhere. But even given a direct downlink, much of the telephone call latency is an artifact of call routing on the ground.