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FCC review of their preliminary application (I believe for access to the subsidized US rural market) said that they had a hard time believing the total network

FCC review of their preliminary application (I believe for access to the subsidized US rural market) said that they had a hard time believing the total network roundtrip would have better than 100ms latency, and now it's 8ms?

m0xte 6y ago
Indeed. This smells like a company I worked for about 20 years ago. The engineering team had an idea and were checking feasibility. The sales team overheard a meeting about it and proceeded to prepare a marketing pack for it which leaked out into the IT press. Analyst said it was rubbish (they were correct). About a month later the engineers had given up. Another month after that they were told their product had the first customer and nearly fell of their chairs. Incidentally they did deliver after slowly lowering expectations over the period of 6 months.
aaron695 6y ago
Why would you believe the FCC over Elon Musk? Then.... they have not even commented specifically on Starlink. Then.... it was just one page in 141, hardly a report or anything of note. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-77A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-77A1.pdf (Page 42) Elon Musk has put billions into this, and it's not going to really work if it's above 100. Clearly the 8ms is a optimistic hope, no one expects it to be that for all people all the time. But it'll be below 100ms.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  Because the FCC doesn't care, but Elon Musk has billions on the line dependent on getting below 100 latency. Musk has a reason to misrepresent the facts... And a history of doing so.
  - jatone 6y ago
    musk also has a history of delivering the products he spouts off on twitter about. they are often delayed but his track record is pretty good on actually delivering working products that do what he says. I wouldn't be surprised if starlink hits around 20ms.
  - woodandsteel 6y ago
    "Because the FCC doesn't care" Not at all true. The head of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is very much in the pocket of the telecom industry.

m0xte 6y ago

Indeed. This smells like a company I worked for about 20 years ago. The engineering team had an idea and were checking feasibility. The sales team overheard a meeting about it and proceeded to prepare a marketing pack for it which leaked out into the IT press. Analyst said it was rubbish (they were correct). About a month later the engineers had given up. Another month after that they were told their product had the first customer and nearly fell of their chairs. Incidentally they did deliver after slowly lowering expectations over the period of 6 months.

aaron695 6y ago

Why would you believe the FCC over Elon Musk? Then.... they have not even commented specifically on Starlink. Then.... it was just one page in 141, hardly a report or anything of note. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-77A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-77A1.pdf (Page 42) Elon Musk has put billions into this, and it's not going to really work if it's above 100. Clearly the 8ms is a optimistic hope, no one expects it to be that for all people all the time. But it'll be below 100ms.

gamblor956 6y ago
Because the FCC doesn't care, but Elon Musk has billions on the line dependent on getting below 100 latency. Musk has a reason to misrepresent the facts... And a history of doing so.
- jatone 6y ago
  musk also has a history of delivering the products he spouts off on twitter about. they are often delayed but his track record is pretty good on actually delivering working products that do what he says. I wouldn't be surprised if starlink hits around 20ms.
- woodandsteel 6y ago
  "Because the FCC doesn't care" Not at all true. The head of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is very much in the pocket of the telecom industry.