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SpaceX is achieving high bandwidth, 25ms latency with Starlink test satellites
@elonmusk:
@nitantbhartia @ninoles @medickinson @thephysicsgirl Pretty good. TinTin A & B are both closing the link to ground w phased array at high bandwidth, low latency (25 ms). Good enough to play fast response video games.
I'm really hopeful that Starlink takes off, as, even in the relatively high population area that I live in, the best service available to me at a reasonable price has crazy latency and pretty crappy bandwidth.
I'd happily trade what I have now for Starlink or a similar service, and that's just me, most of the people that I know out in more rural areas of the US who would jump at the chance to have such fast internet.
Have you heard of Hughes or Viasat satellite internet? Already available today in a lot of areas in the US.
I have, a little bit. My understanding is that they tend to be rather expensive for what you get, and, in many cases, that it is probably better to just go with whatever Comcast or TWC or whoever offers. Please, correct me if I'm wrong!
What's considered high bandwidth?
I'm actually wondering that, too. I saw some speculation on r/spacex that it's probably in the 50-100Mb/s range based on previous statements from both Elon and others from SpaceX.
That doesn't sound particularly high, spread over multiple users.
That's per user, I think. The promise from Starlink has been cheap, low latency internet at high bandwidth per user, and SpaceX is more or less betting the funding for the BFR on that, so I don't think they'll compromise on it.
Edit: According to the FAQ on the Starlink subreddit, speeds up to 1Gbps have been discussed, but no hard numbers are really available yet.
That makes them a viable option.
But that also makes them (like cable) probably the only player in their space that any given person is going to have access to. How much do we trust Elon Musk not to be Comcast?
Keep in mind though it will compete directly against cable, fiber, adsl, lte, etc. It's another option that will be broadly available. I'm less concerned about competition within the "satellite constellation isp" market segment, and more concerned with the total number of competitors offering broadband speeds in regions across the country.
I think he just cares too much about his public image to become Comcast, although having to trust in a single entity is still never a good thing.
Amazed that one man and his companies are having such a profound impact on the world.
It really is amazing. For all the problems that his companies are said to have (although I've heard conflicting reports from myriad sources on those problems), it's undeniable that he and his companies have and are continuing to push a number of important industries forward.
I truly believe that if you had asked someone from NASA or ULA 15 years ago if anyone would ever efficiently recover and reuse a first stage after an orbital flight, they would have said no. And yet, here we are, with SpaceX doing it so often that it has become relatively unremarkable.
It kind of makes me sad as we all have the potential to do great things, just lack the drive. Some might talk about Musk pushing his employees so hard but he's even harder on himself. With how much he has already done he should have earned plenty of leeway.
It definitely is sad that we often lack the drive, as a species, to do the amazing things that we are capable of. Exploration and boundary-pushing seems to be deeply ingrained into humanity, and it saddens me deeply when we ignore that. I mean, we went to the moon, then came home and sat around for 70 years. I deeply want to see humanity expand to LEO, the moon, Mars, and beyond.
I'm not entirely sure about leeway for Musk's companies across the board, though. When it comes to deadlines, certainly, they're doing stuff no one else is, better right and late than bad and exploding. However, when it comes to things like workers rights, his and all companies should be held to high standards. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with long hours and hard work, so long as the employees signed up for that (as SpaceX employees seem to know they have), but for things like some of Tesla's alleged violations, there should be no leeway given.
I completely agree. Some leeway, not complete. I want to see man land on Mars before I'm gone.
Glad to hear it. I've had some people get in nasty arguments with me on Reddit from both sides of this, a few from the "Elon is a monster" side and a few from the "Elon can do no wrong" side. I think it's a really good sign for the community that we aren't seeing that here.
On the subject of Mars, same here! Like I said, I want to see humans exploring Mars and the rest of our solar system. Only good can come of it, plus, it's super cool.
I hope Elon gets his wish on this one. Getting good, fast, low latency internet to even the most rural places in America would be incredibly.
I'd be happy to have fast low latency internet in my 5 million person city in Australia.
I have a few friends who live there. I feel for you there.
So that national broadband effort isn't going too well there?
It's going great for the millionaires who took all the Government money then decided they can't be arsed delivering the product, so that's something I guess.
It has been "revised" all the way back to the point where they're just going to scrap the fibre rollout and continue using copper... We were so so close to having something amazing and word-class.