3 ms·
At 340Km, a 1.5 degree beam covers a circle of just under 9Km diameter. Let's call it 50 square Km. Population density in Boston is over 5000/sqKm, so 250,000
by dsr_ 7y ago
At 340Km, a 1.5 degree beam covers a circle of just under 9Km diameter. Let's call it 50 square Km.
Population density in Boston is over 5000/sqKm, so 250,000 people have to share that satellite. If 10% are subscribers and they use it 10% of the time, that's 2500 simultaneous users.
Starlink has claimed 20Gb/s per satellite, which gives 1 Gb/s per 125 simultaneous users in this high-density area. That's not great, but it's also not awful.
In any less population-dense area, it can be reasonably competitive, especially as the end-user deployment model is expected to be "here's a pizza-box sized antenna: make sure it's pointed in this general direction of the sky, and give it power and ethernet."
- tiernano 7y ago> which gives 1 Gb/s per 125 simultaneous users in this high-density area. That's not great, but it's also not awful. thats per satellite... wouldnt you, in theory, have access to multiple satellites? i though the theory was overlap, etc...
- SEJeff 7y agoYes. I seem to recall either Elon or more likely Gwynne Shotwell saying they're shooting for three or more satellites in view for the system to truly work the way it has been designed.
- earenndil 7y ago3 satellites makes for 24 mb/s per person. Except—I think it's actually 20 Gbps per satellite, so 24 mbps per person, so really only 3 mb/s, which is...usable, but slow.
- ryanmarsh 7y agoReasonably competitive? The competition is non existent in most of the inhabited world. In addition I have a friend on a farm in the US who can’t get a reliable internet connection in spite of the Sprint fiber that runs right in front of his house. This would be a no brainer for a lot of the population. Starlink could have more customers than ATT and Vodaphone combined.