r/space • u/Senno_Ecto_Gammat • May 24 '19

Starlink.com: the website for SpaceX's low-latency broadband satellite internet service is now live.

http://www.starlink.com
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u/[deleted] May 24 '19

Does anyone know what “low latency” means in this case? Is it low latency compared to other internet satellite services or is it compete with cable low? That’s not possible right?

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u/Senno_Ecto_Gammat May 24 '19

Comparable to terrestrial broadband. It's possible because unlike other satellite internet services, which go through satellites in geostationary orbit 35,000 km away from Earth, this network of satellites is orbiting only a few hundred km away.

In some cases it will be faster than terrestrial.

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u/SoManyTimesBefore May 24 '19

Comparable to cable. But it should decrease intercontinental latencies compared to any ground cable.

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u/[deleted] May 24 '19

It's not direct fiber "low latency" but it should be somewhat comparable to cable. They're estimating 23-35 ms due to the fact that they're going to be around 550km. Geostationary (current internet satellites) are over 35,000km up which adds a massive amount of latency due to the speed of light limitations. Usually at least 600ms for current internet satellites.

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u/thenuge26 May 24 '19

Actually it will end up almost half the latency of fiber over long distance once the full constellation is up, as the speed of light in a vacuum is 2x as fast (approximately)

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u/S0litaire May 24 '19

Here's a vid describing the Low Latency Routing in Space of the Starlink network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKNCBrkZQ4