It always pains me to see "speed" tests like these, especially if the methodology they've used isn't clear. My big gripes:
- I strongly suspect that the speed tests here (and in so many
other blogs/vlogs) are UDP-based, which doesn't tell me a thing
about how much TCP goodput I'll get over any of these links.
- Latency is measured between end user and ... what? The satellite
gateway? Some imaginary fixed point on the Internet that all our
traffic has to to through? Or maybe just speedtest.net's servers,
whose locations possibly don't matter one iota for my Internet
performance?
- If we reasonably assume that the capacity of a Starlink
satellite needs to be shared between its users, then few users /
satellite equates to a large share of the capacity. From
Starlink's front page: "Starlink is available to a limited number
of users per coverage area at this time." Guess what? What we see
here may not last, but it's sure great for marketing.
- Ever wondered why Starlink's bulk of beta users sits between
40-something and 50-something degrees of latitude? That's right,
because that's where you get the largest concentration of
satellites right now, which helps keep the number of users per
satellite down. Elsewhere? Tough luck.
- At the other end of your terrestrial broadband connection might
be a few CDN servers, meaning you and your fellow customers will
only need to use the ISP's feed once for that viral cat video
everyone wants to watch. Starlink goes direct to site, not to a
local ISP. So if your ISP is in space and the CDNs are on the
ground, a thousand Starlink users on a satellite wanting to watch
the cat video will need to bring it across the satellite a
thousand times. Your terrestrial ISP (or even sat-based ISP with a
terrestrial network connecting end users) only needs to do this
once.
But big numbers always look great, don't they?
On 13/08/2021 9:22 am, Darrell Budic wrote:https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/starlink-hughesnet-viasat-performance-q2-2021/
Nothing we didn’t know, but interesting comparisons between the 3 sat companies and fixed breadboard around the world.
Made me wonder if there’s anyone else contributing to the speed tests in Iowa county, WI, looks a lot like my averages there...
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