For those not aware of how Starlink operates: The customer antenna is called the User Terminal (U.T.) a.k.a. "dish" although all production models are rectangul

For those not aware of how Starlink operates: The customer antenna is called the User Terminal (U.T.) a.k.a. "dish" although all production models are rectangular - only the pre-production beta model is round and dish-like. The U.T. contains a phased array antenna that can electronically 'steer' the bore-sight (aim) of the transmitted (and received) signal at the current satellite that is in view. In ideal circumstances the U.T. antenna has approximately 110 degrees field of view (~ 35 degrees above each horizon). The satellites pass from west to east and take approximately 15 seconds to pass through the field of view of the U.T. The satellite forms a beam aimed at a fixed location on the ground - this is called a 'cell'. All U.T. within that area share the radio link that has a fixed bandwidth, so contention is managed by the satellite. The path length to a satellite directly overhead would be around 550km (in most cases the satellite is slightly north, or slightly south, of the U.T. but for round numbers sake assume 550km). The path length to a satellite appearing 35 degrees above the horizon (the slant range) is ~ 2568km. Satellites relay the packets from the U.T. to the (nearest) Earth ground station, so the path length and therefore travel-time will vary enormously over just 15 seconds. The round-trip for the minimum case is 4 x 550km = 2200km but for the maximal case is 4 x 2568km = 10272km. These equate to a travel time of between 1.8 and 3.6ms per leg, so that gives a hard physical minimum of 4 x 1.8ms = 7.2ms to 4 x 3.6ms = 14.4ms As more satellites are added to the constellation so the gap between satellites decreases and the angle above horizon at which a satellite is acquired can increase thus shortening the maximum path and lowering the latency. Starlink has a publicly stated goal of less than 20ms round trip latency and published a report in March 2024 about the engineering efforts to achieve this [0]. Much of the effort that customers see focuses on two issues: 1. reducing latency between ground station and Internet connection point 2. scheduling the radio links between satellite and all U.T.s in its beam area Starlink balances contention by sometimes restricting and sometimes promoting activation of new U.T.s in each area - this is why on occasion a fully subscribed cell will impose a waiting list on new activations. At other times Starlink will, and does, dynamically change the monthly subscription cost. Recently some areas had their residential price reduce from US$120 to US$90 where others in congested areas had an increase from US$90 to US$120 (in the USA). [0] https://api.starlink.com/public-files/StarlinkLatency.pdf https://api.starlink.com/public-files/StarlinkLatency.pdf