SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up

Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by apexalpha on Thursday August 27, 2020 @08:21AM (#24292909)

Eventually everyone is going to get connected, yes.

I mean someone in Norway also had to draw a powerline to these people, to use electricity. Why not draw a fiber link, too? It's just part of infrastructure.

I'm not saying that Starlink isn't useful. I'm just really wondering what the implications for astronomy are going to be, whether we will always see these things at dusk.

Now it's Starlink, but what if 3 or 4 companies in total want to have a network? What if on top of that China and India want their own, just like GPS?

It just seems we're running head first into this without anyone thinking of the implications or governance of it.

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Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by ballenf on Thursday August 27, 2020 @09:08AM (#24293288)

Hopefully using satellites like this is a temporary solution for the next decade or two until we have a better solution.

Their limited lifespan is what makes me much less pessimistic than I would be. They have relatively high maintenance costs which means that if utilization is low, it won't make sense to keep replacing them.

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Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by sgt on Thursday August 27, 2020 @08:32AM (#24292998)

I think it'll be nicely self regulated. It's expensive to run, those that are not profitable will not be able to maintain their network and being in low orbit, those satellites will fall into the sky and burn up.

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Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by Aeolun on Thursday August 27, 2020 @08:47AM (#24293103)

> I'm just really wondering what the implications for astronomy are going to be

More space based telescopes?

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Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by menybuvico on Thursday August 27, 2020 @12:09PM (#24295091)

The power lines were, to a large extent, built with U.S. money after the war. Many rural areas have seen little infrastructure investments since then.

Anyway, if governments, businesses and individuals care enough then it's easy enough to develop that infrastructure now. The satellites will come down in a few years.

Who volunteers to tell Musk?

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Re:SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 ... by heavenlyblue on Thursday August 27, 2020 @08:30AM (#24292976)

You don’t need to draw a power line if you can just tap to a local mountain river

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