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Elon Musk says SpaceX Starlink satellite broadband beta testing starts in a few months:
This week [SpaceX] launched another batch of 60 satellites to bring the total size of its growing Starlink broadband constellation to more than 400. While it has the go-ahead to launch more than 12,000 satellites in the coming years, Musk said Wednesday that a "private beta" test of the service will begin in about three months, followed by a public beta about three months later for testers at northern latitudes.
In response to a Twitter user, Musk said Germany qualifies as far enough north, which could mean that much of northern Europe, Canada and the northernmost parts of the US may be eligible to try the service.
There is only so much bandwidth per satellite, so your pizza-box-sized transceiver would experience more congestion and lower throughput in an urban area than it would in a rural setting.
How many Soylentils are interested in signing up?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday April 24 2020, @09:50PM (7 children)
I know it was covered before but I missed it that time. To me, it's not worth ruining the night sky for amateur astronomers (attempting a long exposure, I think it will be ruined with these things streaking across the image), just to get lower-latency satellite broadband. Hey for a techie I seem to become ever more of a luddite as time goes on!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Friday April 24 2020, @11:40PM (3 children)
I'm not thrilled at the idea of having the Earth surrounded by a much-denser-than-now cloud of satellites myself, but when weighing the damage done to the the hobby of amateur astronomers against the dramatic economic, educational, and communicational benefit to hundreds of millions of people living in remote and under-developed regions - particularly rural/remote Africa and Asia, but also large swaths of other continents, it's a really hard argument to make.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:53AM (1 child)
My attitude, as well. But, there is a possibility that the attitude is selfish. It would be sad to walk out into the night, look up, and realize that half or more of the visible lights in the sky were hung up there by Elon Musk.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Saturday April 25 2020, @05:38AM
Very sad indeed. Worse than that, if half the stars were in constant motion it would likely be a nightmare for the many species that use the stars as a navigation aid, with potentially devastating long-term ecological consequences.
However, my understanding is that once they're in position these are mostly invisible to the naked eye, mostly only being visible near the horizon. Can't say I've actually gone out to a dark mountaintop with a Starlink orbital map to see for myself though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @01:51AM
BTW they can't even explain why everyone in the world sees mostly the same Full Moon pattern from moonrise to moonset, and that's one of the most noticeable satellites.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 25 2020, @04:14PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday April 25 2020, @07:40PM
Why can't we have both? I know they were trying to find a way to make them less reflective.
Perhaps, but given this is currently only for Earth-bound broadband users, maybe the talk of space-based internet is just marketing spin.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @05:33PM
What does Starlink do for humanity in space though?
Seems like it increases the risk of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome [wikipedia.org]
And that might cause some issues for putting humanity in space.