New internet service for rural areas coming soon

[CptTrips]

Don't forget that fibre cable is giving the signal a clean isolated environment to travel over.

What's really being forgotten is that fibre really is a pointless distraction here.

What is really being discussed is bringing broadband internet to isolated rural households who might not even have cell coverage currently.  Lets assume it is not being proposed to run fibre to every mobile and modular home out in the mountains and deserts of rural America.

If their choices are HughesNet (or some other conventional sat service) or Starlink, which is most likely to deliver a superior service? 

I've driven through lots of places in Texas that don't even have cell coverage, so I'm skeptical the rural 5G promises would ever provide a general solution.

To me, from the design specs presented, Starlink looks to potentially be the better design. 

Of course, one has to remember Hyperloop....Cough.

[Shuffler]

AT&T has about 97% cell coverage in Texas now.

[CptTrips]

AT&T has about 97% cell coverage in Texas now.

Now that's a conundrum.  Who am I more skeptical of; Elon or ATT? 

Do you use that RV'ing?

[CptTrips]

It looks like ATT has a "Fixed Internet" wireless plan that is interesting.  They are only showing 4G coverage where I am.  External antenna that has to be professionally installed for $100 and 250gb limit.   Pfft.

I don't see 5g working in rural areas for years and years.  4G would be bearable, but not exciting.

[mikeWe9a]

I thought the speed of light is a constant?

The speed of light *in a vacuum* is a constant.  In simplified terms (because UNsimplified requires a discussion of quantum physics that I doubt anyone here- especially me- has the background to do), the speed of light in various materials varies between very slightly and much slower than that, based on the electromagnetic properties of that material/medium.  It is this reduced speed that allows us to make prisms and lenses out of glass, for instance - the change in speed at the boundary results in a change in direction for light not hitting perpendicularly.  In typical fiber, the speed of light is around 30% slower than in a vacuum. 

That fiber still passes light at around 120,000 miles per second though, so traveling 3,000 miles (across the continental United States, for instance) would still occur in only 24 ms, if it were a single uninterrupted run.  The majority of latency for most internet communications comes from the many nodes that the data travels through.  At each node, the data is received (completely), then it is checked for errors, the next hop determined based on its final destination, and then added to a queue to be sent on that next hop.  As the total traffic through a node increases, the delay for the processor at that node to process each data packet increases, which then increases the total travel time for the data, regardless of the actual physical distance traveled.

Mike

[BoilerDown]

Geosynchronous orbit is ~ 1/10th of the way to the moon. Elon's satellites are basically right on top of us.  The latency you've heard about with satellite internet before now doesn't apply.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Comparison_satellite_navigation_orbits.svg

[Shuffler]

Now that's a conundrum.  Who am I more skeptical of; Elon or ATT? 

Do you use that RV'ing?

Yes. Funny thing is I have been with our bunch on several occasions when we have the only phones working dependably. Even on the guadalupe along River Road. We camped at River Road Camp with 5 other RVs, all friends. Their phones would work if they sat at the end of the picnic table and nowhere else. We called it the phone booth. Yet our AT&T phones never lost connection.

I'm not a big fan of the company but they do have the coverage in Texas.

[CptTrips]

Yes. Funny thing is I have been with our bunch on several occasions when we have the only phones working dependably. Even on the guadalupe along River Road. We camped at River Road Camp with 5 other RVs, all friends. Their phones would work if they sat at the end of the picnic table and nowhere else. We called it the phone booth. Yet our AT&T phones never lost connection.

I'm not a big fan of the company but they do have the coverage in Texas.

I think they would have to get 5G coverage equal to their 4G coverage to compete with Starlink once that goes online.  I doubt 4G would be competitive unless they vastly under-priced Starlink.

Competition is good.  I hope it put pressure on both the get rid of that outdated concept of data limits.  I think eventually data limits will go the way of long-distance charges.  It was just assumed for ages that was the way it was, until it wasn't one day. 




 

[Shuffler]

I do not game when out camping. I would not even try to by cell.

That sounds more like a nightmare than any type of fun. 

[Vulcan]

Geosynchronous orbit is ~ 1/10th of the way to the moon. Elon's satellites are basically right on top of us.  The latency you've heard about with satellite internet before now doesn't apply.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Comparison_satellite_navigation_orbits.svg

It is still relatively high as a first hop. And you now have to manage power differently and do handoffs. Not really optimal for gaming.

[Maverick]

I did ok for gaming using a phone as the internet link. The way I did it was to tether the phone (4g signal strength at least 3 bars) to the computer via the charging cable. That kept the phone charged up and there was no wifi link to the phone signal. I ran that way for a couple years and averaged about 125 ms as opposed to my current land like / wifi of 55 to 65 ms. If I did it using the phone as a hot spot the latency went up just a little bit but the phone battery went down fairly rapidly. I found out about that visiting the grandkids in a rural part of Louisiana where I used the phone propped in the window as a hot spot for my tablet, otherwise I would have to be outside for my tablet to get the internet.

[Shuffler]

I did ok for gaming using a phone as the internet link. The way I did it was to tether the phone (4g signal strength at least 3 bars) to the computer via the charging cable. That kept the phone charged up and there was no wifi link to the phone signal. I ran that way for a couple years and averaged about 125 ms as opposed to my current land like / wifi of 55 to 65 ms. If I did it using the phone as a hot spot the latency went up just a little bit but the phone battery went down fairly rapidly. I found out about that visiting the grandkids in a rural part of Louisiana where I used the phone propped in the window as a hot spot for my tablet, otherwise I would have to be outside for my tablet to get the internet.

Interesting..... endeavor to persevere.

[Vulcan]

That what be an expected result for phone tethering mav. The phone is a lot close to to the cell tower (kilometers instead of hundreds of kilometers), and the cell tower is not flying over at thousands of kilometers an hour.

[Mano]

This is a similar video.  It may be hard to play AH on StarLink, but at least if you live in a rural area you have another alternative for connectivity.

My uncle lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains and connects with HughsNet.  He does not watch videos for two reasons. One, the d/l speed is slow and two, he is only allowed a certain number of gigs per month or there is a premium price to pay if he goes over his limit.  He is retired.