5 ms·
Main advantage of Starlink over existing satellite is a (much) lower latency. Starlink constellation is flying by with a new satellite overhead every 10 minutes
by bdamm 6y ago
Main advantage of Starlink over existing satellite is a (much) lower latency. Starlink constellation is flying by with a new satellite overhead every 10 minutes or less, and they're operating just above the atmosphere. Musk has claimed 20ms latency, which if true, would be absolutely a smash victory for rural Internet users everywhere.
- stingraycharles 6y agoThat would have been absolutely awesome. If memory serves me right, my latency was around 150ms on average, which was ok-ish but not great.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- SNACKeR99 6y agoOn satellite right now. I'm getting ~600ms latency :(
- thinkcontext 6y agoThe article says the beta testers are seeing 30-90ms.
- ekianjo 6y ago> The article says the beta testers are seeing 30-90ms. That's actually pretty impressive.
- shaklee3 6y agoWhy is that impressive if the original press announcement said it would be < 20ms?
- LarryMade2 6y agoSatellite usually gets several hundred to nearly 1000 ms of latency, so being under 100 is a big deal. Satellite latency is so bad most people with smart TVs can't stream to them because most streaming buffers empty faster than the network responds with more packets. They are usually stuck with their computers to pre-download content or increase buffer size/decrease video resolution.
- shaklee3 6y agoI didn't say the latency was as high as GEO. If a car commercial said a car was $20k, and you got to the dealership and it was $60k, would you just throw your hands up and say it's still pretty good? The point is that the publicity was based on completely fake promises.
- LarryMade2 6y agoWhen you live in mountainous areas you usually have three options. Dial-up - if its offered still in your area, Point to point internet - if you have neighbours in line of sight also participating. or Satellite - if you are in line of sight to the satellite Many people I know up-country usually all they get is satellite, so yeah starlink may not the promised 20ms, but its hella lot better than what traditional satellite is providing (also hopeful starlink provides better reliability and tech support which in satellite is quite atrocious as well) Heh - as far as what's promised vs delivery, read the fine print on satellite internet plans, they have wording saying the hope is to provide the advertised speeds but there is no guarantee that they ever will.
- shaklee3 6y agoEverything you just said applies to starlink as well. Why the double standard? Still need line of sight, they still won't provide advertised speed guarantees ( no ISP does). And most people don't care about latency. Bandwidth is far more important.
- 6y ago
- hnick 6y agoLocation matters, so FWIW it seems to be from northern US / southern Canada to LA.
- nezgar 6y agoIt would be pretty nifty if the latency and jitter is consistent enough to be used for basic SIP/VoIP. Under 100ms in general would be hard to notice latency much different than a mobile phone. Starlink could go as far as rolling their own VoIP service with guaranteed QoS. I would also hope during beta testing they are developing intelligent queuing to deprioritize bulk transfers, and optimize bursty traffic where latency would be most apparent.