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Bandwidth as well. Starlink can reach 100Mbps, and they're talking about 200Mbps. They can do that in part because they have more satellites.
by tachyonbeam 6y ago
Bandwidth as well. Starlink can reach 100Mbps, and they're talking about 200Mbps. They can do that in part because they have more satellites.
- mbreese 6y ago> because they have more satellites I wouldn't characterize this as a function of having more satellites, but rather having fewer users per satellite (an admittedly subtle difference). But, related to the above post(s), the smaller geographical area each satellite covers is a problem for coverage (you need more satellites in orbit), but is a benefit for speed -- you have less users vying for the full bandwidth of the satellite. And, because the geographical areas are smaller, instead of having one base station/uplink, you now have geographically distributed base stations, so you have multiple points to access the Internet. This also helps with bandwidth (instead of X total uplink capacity, you need X/n capacity for each site, where n is the number of sites). Once you get around the logistics of managing a fleet of satellites, many, many benefits flow from having lower orbits.