Satellite broadband poised for low-latency comeback
Low Earth orbit hardware means satellite bandwidth may finally come of age
Low Earth orbit hardware means satellite bandwidth may finally come of age.
SATELLITE BROADBAND COULD be set for an unlikely comeback, providing rural dwellers and businesses with a high-speed alternative to 5G.
In May, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 60 satellites to start its Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) network at 550km above the planet. That followed announcements from Amazon that the company will also be pumping huge investment into the technology, joining rivals such as Viasat and OneWeb.
The Starlink network is planning on an eventual network of 12,000 individual satellites, while Amazon’s Project Kuiper envisages a 4,000strong network – both of them eyeing what they see as the huge potential of 100% global coverage with serviceable bandwidth.
“For markets that have skipped the fixed-line stage and are currently very reliant on patchy 3G/4G for internet access, the rollout of near 100% coverage at a reasonable latency is a game changer,” said Andrew Ferguson, network specialist at thinkbroadband.com.
Previous satellite projects have relied on geostationary satellites that were seen as a solution of last resort as data was expensive, slow and had horrible latency that precluded applications such as online gaming.
“The new services’ potential is all down to the low Earth orbit, which should see latency drop to around 100ms and in theory offer much better capacity, so has the potential to feel like a 4G mobile connection and might be useful as infill for areas,” said Ferguson. “The bit that killed existing two-way satellite was the latency (around 800ms in day-to-day use) and when unlimited plans were tried it all got very congested.”
Starlink satellites – eventually linked to each other by lasers – will be 65 times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites, and could offer speeds of up to 10Gbits/sec.
Low-Earth options also have other potential benefits, such as far smaller client hardware that is easier to install than dishes that must be correctly aligned.
Direct access to a global audience would put the satellite providers in an incredibly strong position that could be both socially and financially important. According to documents first seen by the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX believes it could see revenues of $30 billion a year from the system by 2025, although estimates put the system cost at $10 billion. Amazon, by contrast, is eyeing access to four billion potential new customers.