Starlink Beta Test

[KMFJD]

SpaceX Starlink speeds revealed as beta users get downloads of 11 to 60Mbps

Ookla tests aren’t showing the gigabit speeds SpaceX teased, but it’s early.

arstechnica.com

We have our first leak of speed tests on Elon Musk's starlink...not what he promised but it's the early stages, it beats my rural wisp (4g service)

 

[JEDIYoda]

I wish you earthlings well!
My home base is 100 light years or 10 trigilons in my language away!
I have a latency of just under 3ms with an upload and a download of 100,000mbps!!

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed with those numbers. My Verizon 4G hotspot can beat those numbers on a good day.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Those are already pretty good, considering it's still early beta. The latency is great though for sat. If they stabilize the latency that'll completely roll over current satellite offerings and DSL, and if the speeds actually get up to gigabit, it could easily usurp most offerings.

 

[ponyo]

I read that article yesterday and came away very impressed. Now we know the Starlink idea/concept works as designed and executed by SpaceX. It's like science fiction and anime I dreamed about coming to life as reality. Such exciting time to be alive. I still don't understand why people try to bet against Elon Musk. Dude dreams big and is sometimes late in delivering but he always deliver what he says he will do.

I'm pretty sure all the ships, RVs, rural businesses and homes, military, etc will all use Starlink in some fashion in the future. I lose cell signal while driving down to Florida or just going up to Georgia mountains. And it's not even that remote areas. I can think of so many uses for Starlink. I will 100% get this to go in my Cybertruck. Hopefully the technology and the speed keep improving to a point where instead of pizza box sized receiver, we can get the same functionality in a cellphone or even Apple Watch sized devices.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm very interested because the area of New Mexico I'm retiring to has zero coverage.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Nice, that's still good for satellite internet. I signed up for the beta but not sure if I'll be picked. They want people in a more rural setting and I may not be north enough. My current internet is fine but it would just be something cool to be part of the beta test.

If ever I buy off grid property it would be totally awesome to get it though. Hopefully the pricing will be reasonable. For in the bush I'd be happy with like a 1 meg connection tbh. It would mostly be for telemetry so I can make sure the property is ok when I'm not there.

 

[ultimatebob]

I read that article yesterday and came away very impressed. Now we know the Starlink idea/concept works as designed and executed by SpaceX. It's like science fiction and anime I dreamed about coming to life as reality. Such exciting time to be alive. I still don't understand why people try to bet against Elon Musk. Dude dreams big and is sometimes late in delivering but he always deliver what he says he will do.

I'm pretty sure all the ships, RVs, rural businesses and homes, military, etc will all use Starlink in some fashion in the future. I lose cell signal while driving down to Florida or just going up to Georgia mountains. And it's not even that remote areas. I can think of so many uses for Starlink. I will 100% get this to go in my Cybertruck. Hopefully the technology and the speed keep improving to a point where instead of pizza box sized receiver, we can get the same functionality in a cellphone or even Apple Watch sized devices.

Yeah, you would think that integrating Starlink into future Tesla vehicles is a no-brainer. It would also be nice if Tesla would offer a Starlink network upgrade module for all of those early Model S's that will be losing network connectivity when the 3G networks are shut down.

 

[MtnMan]

I wish you earthlings well!
My home base is 100 light years or 10 trigilons in my language away!
I have a latency of just under 3ms with an upload and a download of 100,000mbps!!

Needed for the very high def 3D holographic porn streaming?

 

[ponyo]

Yeah, you would think that integrating Starlink into future Tesla vehicles is a no-brainer. It would also be nice if Tesla would offer a Starlink network upgrade module for all of those early Model S's that will be losing network connectivity when the 3G networks are shut down.

I can see Starlink being integrated with Tesla solar roofs, Powerwalls, and Tesla cars in the next decade. I'm also expecting Tesla to eventually come out with its own HVAC systems for homes and complete smart home integration when they start offering Tesla Autobidder in every Tesla home with solar and battery. https://www.tesla.com/support/autobidder

If you're not familiar with Tesla Autobidder, it will basically allow anyone with a home or property that has Tesla solar and Powerwall/Megapack to become its own utility. That's the future. Electricity and energy trading 24/7 by big and small guys. Every home will be its own power plant. Science fiction is becoming reality.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm very interested because the area of New Mexico I'm retiring to has zero coverage.

Just a thought, you might want to make sure an area with zero Internet coverage has coverage for other things, like hospitals. Probably grocery too.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Those are already pretty good, considering it's still early beta. The latency is great though for sat. If they stabilize the latency that'll completely roll over current satellite offerings and DSL, and if the speeds actually get up to gigabit, it could easily usurp most offerings.

I was going to point that out and ask what sort of dark magic are they using to get such low Ping considering the signal needs to travel from the ground to orbit than back to the ground again. That’s a lot of distance.

 

[repoman0]

I was going to point that out and ask what sort of dark magic are they using to get such low Ping considering the signal needs to travel from the ground to orbit than back to the ground again. That’s a lot of distance.

LEO is about 500-550 km altitude, call it 800 km one way distance to account for a satellite not being directly overhead. Speed of light is 3e5 km/s. Then round trip light time is 5.3 ms. Nothing surprising there. Your internet traffic on average flows through hundreds or thousands of kilometers of cables and switches on the ground and the speed of light in copper is half of that in free space.

 

[Spacehead]

Those numbers beat the shit out of what i'm paying $40/month for, ping included.

Has anyone heard rumors or anything on pricing yet?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I was going to point that out and ask what sort of dark magic are they using to get such low Ping considering the signal needs to travel from the ground to orbit than back to the ground again. That’s a lot of distance.

So, normie satellites hang out up at 35,000KM, at geosync orbit. Starlink sats hang out at 500km, way way closer. At that height more time is actually spent traversing equipment and getting translated from sat talk to wire talk than it is traveling (which is the case for geosync sats). The reason previous companies haven't done it this way is because they didn't own their own manufacturing facilities and space launch vehicles, nor could they afford to toss up a few thousand cheap sats and let them gradually burn up while replacing them.

A bonus to this technique is, as you develop more efficient/capable satellites, you don't need to develop some complicated replacement scheme or wait multiple years/decades to get all the outliers. Equipment replacement is baked in to your process.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

LEO is about 500-550 km altitude, call it 800 km one way distance to account for a satellite not being directly overhead. Speed of light is 3e5 km/s. Then round trip light time is 5.3 ms. Nothing surprising there. Your internet traffic on average flows through hundreds or thousands of kilometers of cables and switches on the ground and the speed of light in copper is half of that in free space.

This is light based and not radio wave based?

I know waves are waves are radio waves like 1/100th the speed maybe 1/1000th the speed?

 

[repoman0]

This is light based and not radio wave based?

I know waves are waves are radio waves like 1/100th the speed maybe 1/1000th the speed?

Light is light. That means radio, IR, visible, UV, x-ray and gamma rays. All travel at the same speed, only difference is frequency and wavelength (the product of which = speed of light c)

 

[ponyo]

Those numbers beat the shit out of what i'm paying $40/month for, ping included.

Has anyone heard rumors or anything on pricing yet?

It won't be cheap. Ms. Shotwell mentioned lot of people in the US pay least $80 /month for crappy internet. For people who need Starlink, there's no better alternative and they're already paying around $100 /month for crappier service. So I would guess $80-$120 /month for Starlink service. Just my guess.

If you live in a city, you're not a good candidate for Starlink. This is for people who live far away from civilization and proper city infrastructure. I have giga fiber internet at home so I have zero interest in inferior Starlink for my home internet. But for RV while camping in state and national parks with zero cell service, YES please! Even $120 /month would be a bargain in that scenario.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Light is light. That means radio, IR, visible, UV, x-ray and gamma rays. All travel at the same speed, only difference is frequency and wavelength (the product of which = speed of light c)

Ah I was under the impression waves for broadcast were in the 500-1000 miles per hours type thing (maybe minute). I thought the super high fast spectrum stuff needed too much power/antenna to be practical.
Thank you for the education.

 

[quikah]

Wonder whats going to happen when these start flying over China.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I bet it will be super illegal to own an access terminal in some countries like China and North Korea. It will be kinda hard to hide and if you're caught with one they'll probably sentence you to death. Some of those places are pretty crazy like that. So basically it will just not be worth it to even try.

I would be curious if these would work inside an attic though, I find a lot of stuff that is suppose to be line of sight can still work with some obstructions. I have an ADS-B antenna in my attic and I can pickup flights over 200km away. I think it depends on how the motorized aiming mechanism works though, it might actually rely on seeing the actual sky.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I don't even know what kind of bandwidth you need nowadays - is this up-to-par for something like streaming Netflix - which is what a lot of folks are demanding?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don't even know what kind of bandwidth you need nowadays - is this up-to-par for something like streaming Netflix - which is what a lot of folks are demanding?

Posted test numbers would work with one or two TVs streaming some sort of HD video but not 4K video.
Basically 10-20mbs for HD stream for a consistent good experience.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think the biggest thing if you want to stream is whether or not they're going to put caps. If they put caps it may be useless for that. Streaming uses a decent amount of bandwidth. A couple mbps sustained for a few hours every day adds up fast.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Just a thought, you might want to make sure an area with zero Internet coverage has coverage for other things, like hospitals. Probably grocery too.

Already figured out. It's communications that are the problem. That and water. Still the thought of being on my own planet, if undeveloped, has it's attractions.