SpaceX Starlink Speeds and Latency Revealed

[Tsing]

Image: SpaceX



Speed tests for SpaceX’s satellite-broadband service, Starlink, have begun showing up on Ookla’s speedtest.net (via reddit’s r/starlink), and the numbers are pretty decent. Beta testers have been getting download speeds from 11 Mbps to 60 Mbps and upload speeds from 5 Mbps to 18 Mbps. While those numbers aren’t as good as the national broadband averages (96.25 Mbps down, 32.88 Mbps up), Elon Musk’s plan to bring fast-speed internet to challenging geographical areas appears to be shaping up well.



The speed tests are also showing...

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[Brian_B]

That's a lot better than what I can get now where I live.

Can't wait to see what the data cap will be though.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

How does the process work? Do you receive/send data to multiple satellites at once? If so, would that mean throughput could be increased with more connections to more satellites?

If they can get above 100Mbps, no data caps and sub 100 latency then I will go with Starlink over my current Spectrum cable setup.

 

[Zarathustra]

Cool tech.

I wonder how much it will cost to implement though. It's one thing to get a few users working on a single satellite. If it scales up, you might need many satellites, and that could be really expensive.

Probably depends on how many users can effectively be supported per satellite.

I wonder if there will be SDU units for planes that use this.

Could be revolutionary for high altitude general aviation.

With the high frequencies they use though, I wonder how much they will be impacted by weather.



As far as latency goes.

20ms is certainly sufficient for online gaming. I'd argue anything under ~50ms is OK.

 

[Uvilla]

They are at 400+ satellites which grow with batches of 60. Its basically a low earth orbit satellite mesh, you connect to the nearest beaming up, that one connects to the mesh, and down the shortest route back to whichever point can connect to the internet on earth.. i take it is akin to a 4g tower or some such.. just a place to connect the wireless signals to the actual internet... I take it those towers will be a bigger choke point than the satellites themselves depending on the usage.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

Cool tech.

I wonder how much it will cost to implement though. It's one thing to get a few users working on a single satellite. If it scales up, you might need many satellites, and that could be really expensive.

Well they will be putting up around 22k satellites.

 

[Eduardo_Domingot]

I do like that they are working on this angle for delivering internet to more people but I also wish we would just build out Rural America's network infrastructure akin to a interstate highway project. People in rural states deserve the connections and to be honest I would not mind living somewhere more remote (even just within my state) if it just had decent enough internet for my line of work.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Where I live pretty much the whole state is rural. I'm fortunate to live close to a ISP CO but at times I've lived in places where dial up was the only option.

I do like that they are working on this angle for delivering internet to more people but I also wish we would just build out Rural America's network infrastructure akin to a interstate highway project. People in rural states deserve the connections and to be honest I would not mind living somewhere more remote (even just within my state) if it just had decent enough internet for my line of work.

I agree it would be nice but most ISP's have more, or less, abandoned the rural extremes to fend for themselves. I refuse to get into the politics of it but I've watched so many promises broken over the last decade. Love 'em, or hate 'em, at least Elon's doing something.

 

[Zarathustra]

Where I live pretty much the whole state is rural. I'm fortunate to live close to a ISP CO but at times I've lived in places where dial up was the only option.

I agree it would be nice but most ISP's have more, or less, abandoned the rural extremes to fend for themselves. I refuse to get into the politics of it but I've watched so many promises broken over the last decade. Love 'em, or hate 'em, at least Elon's doing something.

I'd imagine it's just a simple matter of the profit margin evaporating when there is lower population density. It costs the same to build up the infrastructure, but there are just so many fewer customers to pay for it.

I just wish they didn't go after those who tried to solve it with community internet.

 

[Grimlakin]

I'd imagine it's just a simple matter of the profit margin evaporating wen there is lower population density. It costs the same to build up the infrastructure, but there are just so many fewer customers to pay for it.

I just wish they didn't go after those who tried to solve it with community internet.

Yea community internet should be leading the way. The cost per household would be so low in comparison. Laying out your dark ring then deploying connections for neighborhoods that want/need them would be quickly offset by a 40 dollar a month fee for bi directional gigabit connectivity it isn't even funny.

 

[Burticus]

How does the process work? Do you receive/send data to multiple satellites at once? If so, would that mean throughput could be increased with more connections to more satellites?

If they can get above 100Mbps, no data caps and sub 100 latency then I will go with Starlink over my current Spectrum cable setup.

If you are in an urban area that already has that infrastructure, you are not the target audience for Starlink. It is targeted for rural areas/countries that have no real alternative.

My bro-in-law has a place in upstate NY that is awesome but internet is almost non-existent. He pays a fortune for crappy DSL and hughesnet and still can't pull off a zoom video call on regular basis. Forget about streaming a movie. And cell service is almost as bad, my T-MO phone doesn't work there, and his Verizon cell barely does (after he paid for a repeater).

I wouldn't mind getting out of my metroplex either, as I get older I would like a little more space between me and my neighbors and less traffic. But several areas outside of DFW I've looked at have bupkis for internet. When I ask that question the response is like "cell coverage is pretty good". I work in IT so to remote work I have to have at least 10mb and stable. I doubt my T-MO phone as a hotspot out in nowhereland would meet those needs.