Starlink

[civilian]

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I am with t, I don't understand the need or the science, but won't stop the research from being done. It is important to something outside of my direct needs. Jon

 

[lincmercguy]

Y'all have to read this article. You think worldwide internet travels by satellite? This is a story, a long, detailed and well written story about the companies that fix underwater cables across the world. Satellite internet is NOT the heavy hauler of data that keeps everything going. I should Capitalize EVERYTHING. Maybe one day things will change over to satellite but not anytime soon. Undersea cables are still the mainstay.

This is true the "backbone" of the internet is still fiber cable. Starlink just provides the ISP portion to get your connection to the internet just like the cable company. What makes it unique is that you don't need physical connection or RF/microwave connection and the very low Earth orbit cuts the latency way down. The SL signal connects to the internet through ground stations that have fiber connections from there.

Some of the future inter-satellite communications SL wants to do is really to extend range more than anything.

 

[dstig1]

Nothing beats a hard line, in the end. I have everything I can hard wired on ethernet in my house. Wireless is for portable devices or convenience for oddball items.

Starlink is for hard to reach end-users, and is great for that, or so it seems. I have a fiber connection so don't need it, but I am lucky where I am... Many around here are not so lucky.

 

[sd455dan]

This is true the "backbone" of the internet is still fiber cable. Starlink just provides the ISP portion to get your connection to the internet just like the cable company. What makes it unique is that you don't need physical connection or RF/microwave connection and the very low Earth orbit cuts the latency way down. The SL signal connects to the internet through ground stations that have fiber connections from there.

Some of the future inter-satellite communications SL wants to do is really to extend range more than anything.

it will be interesting to see if Starlink can do worldwide cell phone coverage, even if it is only used for 911

 

[lincmercguy]

Nothing beats a hard line, in the end. I have everything I can hard wired on ethernet in my house. Wireless is for portable devices or convenience for oddball items.

Unless it's too expensive to run. Cable and fiber is better than Starlink. Starlink is much better than DSL. I usually get 250mbps down. The downside of Starlink is that it goes down in bad electrical storms.

Ironically, the only thing I have on ethernet in my house is my printer. And that is because the Wifi in the printer quit working.

 

[stompybritches]

SL is the only thing saving my arse, without it Verizon cell drops calls, I have zero data capability though pay for it and cannot even send text messages or go online. I have to run everything on wi-fi thru SL. Just one mile down the road is the true dead zone, for miles and miles and miles. Broadband is a joke out here and way more expensive than SL.

 

[ponytug]

it will be interesting to see if Starlink can do worldwide cell phone coverage, even if it is only used for 911

You can easily run a bunch of VOIP / WiFi cell phones over Starlink. We do it routinely; like many others, our local rural telephone provider has absolutely terrible performance, despite the local (state) rules requiring a certain level of uptime. Starlink beats our old provider hands down for uptime.

A "bunch" is a bit elastic, as the details of the actual connection matter; bandwidth starts at about 15kb/s and goes up towards 3Mbit/s, depending on the codec, and other details. However, ten calls at high (3Mbit/s) fit in 10Mbit/s of upload, since conversations aren't continuous.

VoIP Bandwidth Calculator - Packetizer

Packetizer's VoIP Bandwidth Calculator will tell you exactly how much bandwidth you need for your VoIP calls. It will calculate the bandwidth required based on the CODEC used, the packetization, and even the bandwidth at each layer of the protocol stack.

www.bandcalc.com

All the best,

Peter

 

[BigBlue1]

Nothing beats a hard line, in the end. I have everything I can hard wired on ethernet in my house. Wireless is for portable devices or convenience for oddball items.

Starlink is for hard to reach end-users, and is great for that, or so it seems. I have a fiber connection so don't need it, but I am lucky where I am... Many around here are not so lucky.

Wireless is for portable devices or convenience for oddball items

You obviously don't have many network-connected devices. Though I totally agree that a physical wired connection is better from a networking perspective, in a home there are tons of clients that either 1) only connect via wifi so ethernet is out of the question; or 2) are in locations where running ethernet isn't going to be practical. For instance, I have: Traeger smoker outside, MyQ garage door management device in the garage, a pet feeder, smart TVs/streaming devices, etc. all over the house that just don't have ethernet jacks. And they work perfectly because I have a solid mesh wifi home network.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Ethernet is full duplex. 1 gigabit FIOS and 1 gigabit ethernet at 1-2 ms latency is great for internet, and I ran ethernet to the shop office to make it a potential business location. Yay tomorrow!

 

[BigBlue1]

You can easily run a bunch of VOIP / WiFi cell phones over Starlink. We do it routinely; like many others, our local rural telephone provider has absolutely terrible performance, despite the local (state) rules requiring a certain level of uptime. Starlink beats our old provider hands down for uptime.

A "bunch" is a bit elastic, as the details of the actual connection matter; bandwidth starts at about 15kb/s and goes up towards 3Mbit/s, depending on the codec, and other details. However, ten calls at high (3Mbit/s) fit in 10Mbit/s of upload, since conversations aren't continuous.

VoIP Bandwidth Calculator - Packetizer

Packetizer's VoIP Bandwidth Calculator will tell you exactly how much bandwidth you need for your VoIP calls. It will calculate the bandwidth required based on the CODEC used, the packetization, and even the bandwidth at each layer of the protocol stack.

www.bandcalc.com

All the best,

Peter

I think you're talking about two different things. What sd455dan is likely talking about is the future offering of cell direct-to-Starlink connectivity via new style modems in cell phones. Cell phones will be able to connect just like they are connecting to a cellular network but to Starlink satellites. Initially it will be for data only (no voice) but they plan to get to voice after not too long. For instance, you'll be able to be way out in the mountains far away from the nearest cell tower and be able to send an SMS message or activate emergency services (like a SPOT emergency beacon). And someday just plain voice and Internet.