This is the Year Internet From Space Gets Really Serious

[agesilaus]

Universe Today

Maybe this will generate some competition and drive prices down and provided internet features and bandwidth up.

[Lwiddis]

Exciting times.

[agesilaus]

wa8yxm wrote:
I was reading and add and they are talking about unlimited bandwidth for seven bucks. of course that will likely be 77 by the time you get billed. but HEY. that would really drive prices down for wired service. and they also talked about hte posibility of MOBILE devices on the network.

OF course remember this was an add wanting to sell me a book telling me who to invest in... (alas. do not have investment funds to invest with. So did not pursue beyond the ad.

I am howeer familure with the Iridium system. it really DOES work.

You'll be happy to see this then: SpaceX

[wa8yxm]

I was reading and add and they are talking about unlimited bandwidth for seven bucks. of course that will likely be 77 by the time you get billed. but HEY. that would really drive prices down for wired service. and they also talked about hte posibility of MOBILE devices on the network.

OF course remember this was an add wanting to sell me a book telling me who to invest in... (alas. do not have investment funds to invest with. So did not pursue beyond the ad.

I am howeer familure with the Iridium system. it really DOES work.

[Bill_Satellite]

Yeah, not this year.

[rbritton]

2oldman wrote:
Latency (delay) has been a nagging problem for satellite service so far. Don't know if this system will be better, although these will be Leos.

That should help a lot. EchoStar 19 (HughesNet) is at 23,200 miles where LEO is at about 1,200 miles. Between DNS resolution and the actual request, you're typically around 600-800 ms minimum (due to the speed of light) for a response from HughesNet. With a LEO satellite, you're only losing about 30 ms to that portion of it.

[GordonThree]

I thought Zuckerbergs was deploying free WiFi using tethered weather balloons?

[agesilaus]

I recall that there was a launch of multiple satellites for one of these systems just a week or two ago.

[2oldman]

Latency (delay) has been a nagging problem for satellite service so far. Don't know if this system will be better, although these will be Leos.

[kerrlakeRoo]

Exede has renamed itself Viasat and they launched a new satellite last summer that is supposed to be coming online now. Speeds are expected to be possibly as high as 150 Mps from a current high of 10. Cost I have been told will drop, or, limits will increase. They are already experimenting with unlimited data the same way cellphone companies have been.
The next month or so will tell a lot, but their use for mobile users are going to be limited. Sat equipment for uploading data is expensive and installation has to be much more precise than the download only installation needed for satellite tv.

[Isaac-1]

The problem is we are looking at 4-5 years before any of these systems go live, assuming they keep to their timelines which such projects seldom do.