5 ms·
Very interesting. The latency may be <10ms which is good enough for most applications. ViaSat1 has an overall capacity of 140Gbit/sec and that was launched in
by martinald 12y ago
Very interesting. The latency may be <10ms which is good enough for most applications.
ViaSat1 has an overall capacity of 140Gbit/sec and that was launched in 2011. I'd imagine that higher capacities are possible (though considering they are very low weight, that may restrict the amount of beams it can push out).
However, the continual problem with satellite internet is that the satellites have a life expectancy of 15 years or so. While 140gbit/sec+ is probably enough now, it certainly won't be much in a few years time (when you have to consider that the bandwidth is shared across an awful lot of potential users).
Edit: I'd also add that while the proposed market is for areas without current internet connectivity, people do need to realise that a lot of Africa has very good 2G/3G coverage and some areas have very good LTE coverage. The problem historically has been backhaul capacity
a) from the towers back
b) from the core network back to the internet
a) is still an issue as in Africa most if not all backhaul from the towers is provided via microwave relay and daisy chaining them, which causes capacity problems (most of the West has fibre or similar connecting each tower)
b) is slowly being improved with much better fibre runs around Africa.
Considering that most very basic smartphones will have LTE chipsets by the time this system is up, it may be more cost effective to use LTE than this system. This system is likely to require expensive ground terminals that need to be fixed in place.
- sajal83 12y ago<10ms is assuming that the satellite you connect to is directly accessing a base station... if the signal needs to be routed across the world to get to the base station then its a lot higher than conventional fiber.
- agildehaus 12y agoEh, then just continue adding base stations to improve latency. Easy problem to solve.
- kashkhan 12y agoviasat is a bit heavier than the 100kg sats that will be done here. Doing 100Gbps with $1MM is unlikely although it might be possible in 5 years. 15 year lifetime in 1000km orbit is not very likely, 5-7 year tops given propellant requirements. for ~1000 satellites @ 100kg each that's about 2 saturn V launches so not crazy launch economics. I guess they can do 30 sats per plane x 30 planes. That will give you the stable rings you need for backhaul. son of teledesic may finally see the day with spacex :)
- lsaferite 12y agoI was so excited by Teledesic and so disappointed when they folded. If someone actually pulls off what they planned I'll be right in line to be a customer, likely regardless of price. I want to move far away from people and the only real limiter is decent high speed internet so I can do my work.
- nitrogen 12y agoIt's like the Synapse network from the movie Antitrust. I've always wondered why lower orbit, lower latency service wasn't available sooner.
- JshWright 12y ago> ~1000 satellites @ 100kg each that's about 2 saturn V launches so not crazy launch economics. Unless you have a couple Saturn V's tucked away somewhere no one knows about, it's more likely they'll be launched on SpaceX vehicles. Assuming Falcon Heavy ever flies, and has performance characteristics similar to those listed on spacex.com, they could launch 1000ish 100kg sats in 2-3 FH launches. It might be more likely that they'll simply fit as many as they can as secondary payloads in their normal launch schedule. Slower deployment, but effectively 'free'.
- ybalkind 12y ago"people do need to realise that a lot of Africa has very good 2G/3G coverage" This true, but the price is prohibitive. Most cell phone users in Africa are on prepaid mobile services which charge the equivalent of 20 US cents per MB for 2G/3G data. This is a lot of money for the average 3rd world cell phone user.
- nuriaion 12y agoWhen i was in Zimbabwe (5 Years ago) the biggest prepaid refill card you could buy was around 1$. (That was enough for a several minutes call back to Europe.) If you wanted more you had to buy several refill cards.
- nmjohn 12y ago$200/gb of bandwidth is expensive for anybody!
- psykovsky 12y agoIn Portugal we have prepaid prices of €1.25 for 30MB and €1/hr for 2G/3G. I still find it insanely expensive. EDIT: Those 30MB are only valid for 24hrs max. As soon as midnight comes, you have to pay more €1.25 to get another 30MB valid until the end of the day.
- icebraining 12y agoUnless you really only need 30MB or less, you're better off getting the 200MB prepaid package for €2.9, which isn't nearly as bad in €/MB.
- psykovsky 12y ago200MB... like that lasts a month. After you spend the 200MB you'll have to pay €1.25 for 30MB, valid only until midnight of the same day. There's no paying €2.9 for 200MB more. Nuances...
- AmirS2 12y agoKenya has pretty good rates for prepaid data, approx 1 US cent per MB if you buy a 500Mb bundle: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/internet/data-plans/prepay-data-bundles http://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/internet/data-plans/prep... 500KSH for the 500Mb bundle, current FX rate is 90KSH/USD. Even the smallest bundle, 4Mb, is hardly more expensive per MD, at only 5 KSH (5.6 cents). Are these prices unrepresentative of other African countries?
- adventured 12y agoI see this as partially being that Musk is effectively filling his own volume demands for SpaceX. So even if this venture breaks even, or loses a modest amount of money, ramping up the launch volume for SpaceX is a big win for him. Every launch he can have with SpaceX that pays for itself, is a big win. It might also help demonstrate the economics that he has always had in mind for space, over time; an evolving proof of concept (that it'll likely get cheaper over time).
- bfe 12y agoYes -- even a breakeven on the satellite business that pays for more launches would be a big win, though I don't think SpaceX would do this without having good ideas for a niche with decent margins. But I wonder if this might mean foregoing potential future launch business with other satellite providers who would see SpaceX as a competitor instead of just launch service provider.
- pbreit 12y agoI'm sure stuffing the manifest is important but I doubt they will do so at a loss or even a push.
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- fit2rule 12y agoWhy aren't satellite fleets a solution to the back-haul problem?
- 1rae 12y agoI think it is still quite expensive and there is a lot of latency when doing a voice call. The solution works for rural telecoms in areas like Zambia, where it is difficult to connect a fibre or microwave system. The current rural telecom systems are basically just a 3m pole with an antenna, with a solar panel and a small satellite link, and you have to work with the chief of the village in order to get permission and to ask them to look after the small tower. It is really fast to deploy and for internet connectivity it works okay but you have to start looking at caching pages like wikipedia, and other popular sites, and there will probably be a few days delay in the web content.
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