From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail.lang.hm (unknown [66.167.227.145]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ADH-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by lists.bufferbloat.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id A63703B2A4 for ; Tue, 8 Feb 2022 14:12:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from dlang-mobile (unknown [10.2.2.69]) by mail.lang.hm (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6333120DCD; Tue, 8 Feb 2022 11:12:26 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2022 11:12:26 -0800 (PST) From: David Lang To: Dave Taht cc: Mike Puchol , starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <26168q80-1s58-sq76-9p74-61r615r99no5@ynat.uz> References: <5d9dab2c-3c20-4d18-aa1d-cc72bf250843@Spark> <736pq4q3-q21n-p6rn-9391-o56qn77npn2@ynat.uz> <9383f6d3-b6e3-de25-fee0-4416bd05c030@cs.auckland.ac.nz> <7ffdb646-0d02-c1fa-6857-576c2681490c@falco.ca> <2e2c67c8-839b-e1af-5937-78dab715d482@cs.auckland.ac.nz> <8b7fd197-777d-e963-628d-4cdff7c04380@sokolov.eu.org> <78be6869-375c-02a8-498b-7446287ab97d@cs.auckland.ac.nz> <0136de5b-a198-4ebf-8a12-baa2424c431d@Spark> <6b0b3d22-f3e6-a3bd-b04c-af15e5498560@sokolov.eu.org> <07e8f287-3da1-4890-817f-4daf945c8d12@Spark> <10acc51c-f00c-02cc-c117-ed6083faf9d0@vdr.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: [Starlink] Starlink for Tonga? X-BeenThere: starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: "Starlink has bufferbloat. Bad." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2022 19:12:27 -0000 On Tue, 8 Feb 2022, Dave Taht wrote: > What I don't quite understand is why a full-fledged ground station is > needed to get dropped. (in a day after they have laser links) > > A simple dishy can do 300mbit down and over 20Mbit up. using a 32k > codec that's quite a few voice calls, or cleared transactions. > > The difference between zero and some connectivity is quite a lot. They don't have enough laser equipped satellites to provide coverage yet (Elon commented that providing coverage is quite hard because of the lack of enough laser satellites right now). They don't currently do dishy-to-dishy communications. So, long term you are right, a new ground station there wouldn't be needed (and adds additional load to the Fiji underwater links, not desirable in the long term), but in the short term, it's what's needed to provide service in the area. David Lang