SpaceX
Beta users of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service will receive download speeds ranging from 11Mbps to 60Mbps, according to tests conducted using Ookla’s tooltestest.net. Speed tests showed upload speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 18Mbps.
The same tests, conducted in the past two weeks, showed latency as ping rates from 31ms to 94ms. This is not a comprehensive study of Starlink speeds and latency, so it is not clear if this is what Internet users should expect once Starlink satellites are fully deployed and the service reaches commercial availability. We asked several questions yesterday about the speed test results and will update this article when we get answers.
Links to 11 anonymous speed tests by Starlink users were posted yesterday by a Reddit user. Another Reddit user has compiled some of the tests to create this graph:
Reddit user Snnackss
Beta testers need to sign non-disclosure agreements so that these speed tests can be one of the only glimpses we get of real performance during the trials. SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission that Starlink would eventually reach gigabit speeds, saying in its 2016 application to the FCC that “once fully optimized through the Final Commit, the system will be able to deliver high bandwidth (up to 1Gbps per user). , low latency broadband services for consumers and businesses in the US and worldwide. “SpaceX has so far launched about 600 satellites and has FCC permission to launch nearly 12,000.
Although 60Mbps is not gigabit, it is similar to some of the layers of lower cable speeds and is much higher than speeds offered by many DSL services in rural areas where SpaceX is likely to see a lot of interest. On the Reddit thread, some internet users said they would prefer the speeds to be displayed in the Starlink tests because they are currently sitting at 1Mbps or even less. A report by Ookla on fixed broadband speeds in December 2018 found average download speeds in the US of 96.25Mbps and average uploads of 32.88Mbps. SpaceX plans to reach a maximum of 5 million home Internet subscribers in the US.
SpaceX latency
In March, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, “We are aiming for latency below 20 milliseconds so that one can play a video-response video game at a competitive level.” SpaceX satellites have low-Earth orbits of 540km to 570km, enabling them to produce much lower latency than geostationary satellites orbiting about 35,000km.
FCC President Ajit Pai questioned Musk’s latency and in May 2020 proposed to classify SpaceX and all other satellite operators as providers of high latency – or above 100ms – for purposes of a rural broadband financing distribution. The FCC backed that plan, but said companies like SpaceX would have to prove they could offer low latencies, and it remained “seriously doubtful” that SpaceX and other similar providers could deliver latencies of less than 100ms.
Ping and latency are the same thing in Ookla speed tests, says one of the service’s help documents. It measures the runtime in milliseconds when a client device sends a message to a server and the server returns a reply. “This test is repeated several times with the lowest value determining the end result,” says Ookla.
As the FCC wrote, the latency of a satellite network consists of the ‘propagation delay’, the time it takes for a radio wave to travel from the satellite to the earth’s surface and back, and the ‘processing delay’, the time it takes to it takes for the network to process the data. The FCC also notes that “delay in propagation in a satellite network is not only responsible for latency in other parts of the network, such as processing, routing and transport of traffic to its destination.” FCC tests found that “Cable latencies ranged between 18ms up to 24ms, fiber latencies between 5ms and 12ms, and DSL between 27ms and 55ms. “Traditional broadband satellites using geostationary orbits have FCC-measured latencies of about 600ms, but this is not indicative of the lower latencies expected. become from satellites with low Earth.
Although the late test speed tests for Ooklink for Starlink do not meet Musk’s goal of less than 20ms, they are below the FCMS’s threshold of 100ms. For competitive online gaming, Ookla said players should be in “winning” form with latency or ping of 59ms or less, and “in the game” with latency or ping of up to 129ms. The 35 best cities in the world for online gaming have ping rates of 8 to 28ms, a report by Ookla said last year.
Latency tests are affected by the distance between the user and the server. The Ookla tests revealed on Reddit showed the tests to servers in Los Angeles and Seattle; SpaceX’s beta tests are being reviewed for the northern US and southern Canada, but a Stop the Cap story says testers so far are in rural areas of Washington state.
