Welcome to TechQuickieDaily.
Today we will talk about the leaked starlink
speedtests and
SpaceXs possibility of getting federal Rural
Digital Opportunity Fund.
SpaceX is quite busy with its ambitious fleet
of internet-beaming satellites Starlink.
The company
has already launched private beta program
for the same.
The users that are enrolled in the service
have to go through a Non Disclosure Agreement,
Which prevents users from sharing anything
related to the service they are getting.
Yet in mid-August, people on the Starlink
Subreddit started
posting results of the speeds they are getting
from Starlink.
Speedtest.net allows users to
anonymously share the results, this allowed
the beta testers to bypass the Agreement with
spacex
and share the results with the internet.
The results shared on reddit shows a download
speed ranging from 35 to 60 megabits per second,
while the upload speeds were from 5 to 18
megabits per second.
But the best part was the ping that
the users were getting.
Ping is a latency measure of how long it takes
data to go to and from a user's
computer to a server on the internet, This
enables users to have smooth experience while
doing
realtime tasks on the internet, like gaming
and video conferencing.
SpaceX promised ping to be as
low as 20ms on their network, as the satellites
are stationed in the low earth orbit.
And the signal
travels faster in the air than in fibre cables.
The results from the testers shows the ping
as it was
promised, it was always below 100 milliseconds
and was as low as 20 milliseconds at times.
Ookla,
which runs Speedtest.net, confirmed that the
results were legitimate.
These numbers are great for someone who does
not have access to good broadband, but SpaceX
had
expected much better speeds from the fleet
of satellites.
We also have to consider that these are
early results and things will improve over
time with more and more satellites going to
orbit.
Given its extensive lobbying efforts, SpaceX
is likely using Starlink to compete for a
large pool of
Federal Communications Commission subsidies
this fall, called the Rural Digital Opportunity
Fund.
The goal of the new $20.4 billion, two-phase
program is to deliver high-speed, low-latency
web
access to parts of rural America where no
broadband service is available.
FCC defines the speed to
be minimum of 25 megabits per second download
and 3 megabits per second upload speeds.
The
agency considers this fast enough to telecommute,
do schoolwork, or stream 4K video.
The FCC
plans to pay up to $16 billion this fall to
those providers that can bring the best broadband
access to
the most areas for the lowest cost.
Starlink might seem like a shoo-in for the
subsidies, since its coverage would, according
to Musk,
eventually reach almost anywhere on Earth
and far outperform the speed and latency of
older
satellite fleets.
It also seems to clear important FCC thresholds
of bandwidth and latency no greater
than 100 milliseconds.
But it is unclear whether SpaceX has even
applied for the Fund.
FCC did not
disclose the list of applicants for the Fund,
nor SpaceX commented anything on this matter.
Yet,
going by the trend of SpaceX competing for
the government subsidies and contracts, One
should
not be surprised if they did apply for the
Fund.
Even if SpaceX does get the fund, it will
not be able to compete in the highest tier
which requires
gigabit speed.
But it seems like they have sorted out the
ping puzzle.
Whether SpaceX gets the subsidies or not,
I am quite excited about the future of the
starlink
network.
I just can’t wait to get my hands on the
starlink User terminal.
If you are excited about that
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If you have come this far in to the video
please drop a like below
and comment about what you think of the Starlinks
Future.
Thank You, See you Again.
