SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
SpaceX Starlink speeds revealed as beta users get downloads of 11 to 60Mbps:
Beta users of SpaceX's Starlink satellite-broadband service are getting download speeds ranging from 11Mbps to 60Mbps, according to tests conducted using Ookla's speedtest.net tool. Speed tests showed upload speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 18Mbps.
The same tests, conducted over the past two weeks, showed latencies or ping rates ranging from 31ms to 94ms. This isn't a comprehensive study of Starlink speeds and latency, so it's not clear whether this is what Internet users should expect once Starlink satellites are fully deployed and the service reaches commercial availability. We asked SpaceX several questions about the speed-test results yesterday and will update this article if we get answers.
[...] Beta testers must sign non-disclosure agreements, so these speed tests might be one of the only glimpses we get of real-world performance during the trials. SpaceX has told the Federal Communications Commission that Starlink would eventually hit gigabit speeds, saying in its 2016 application to the FCC that "once fully optimized through the Final Deployment, the system will be able to provide high bandwidth (up to 1Gbps per user), low latency broadband services for consumers and businesses in the US and globally." SpaceX has launched about 600 satellites so far and has FCC permission to launch nearly 12,000.
[...] Although the Ookla speed-test latencies for Starlink don't hit Musk's target of below 20ms, they are below the FCC's 100ms threshold. For competitive online gaming, Ookla says players should be in "winning" shape 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, an Ookla report last year said.
Latency tests are affected by the distance between the user and the server. The Ookla tests revealed on Reddit showed the tests going to servers in Los Angeles and Seattle; SpaceX's beta tests are slated for the northern US and southern Canada, but a Stop the Cap story says that testers so far are in rural areas of Washington state only.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Saturday August 15 2020, @06:13PM (3 children)
Most people don't play competitively.
It's just that simple.
In my gaming days, I made sure I had pings on single-digit ms.
Nowadays I game over 4G. It's not critical that I win, it's a bit of fun and I don't get trounced JUST because I have a slightly higher ping. That said my pings are in the 30-50ms range, so how this is seen as something great I don't understand. Radio to a fibre a few hundred metres away, probably the biggest latency is my wifi.
You can't game competitively on wifi. It's bursty, unreliable, and shared-spectrum. But almost everyone who ever plays a game does.
Under 100ms is more than acceptable for the vast, vast, vast, vast majority of gamers. How do we know? That's what they HAVE NOW. It's been the same since the days of the very first broadband, that's why your ping tends to go red as it approaches 100ms. Otherwise it stays green. Why? Because that's what most people have and find acceptable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2020, @07:02PM
Sometimes you need to skap the tadpole to see which way the legs grow, thats all this is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2020, @08:05PM (1 child)
My ping time to slither.io is 74ms. I don't know if the problem is just my ping, or if the servers suck now. I used to get on leader board quite often, and I'd quit when I got bored. Now the lag is so bad that it has taken most of my best moves off the table. I take my finger off the mouse button, and half the time it's like I'm sliding across ice into an opponent and dying. It's not just that I can't win. It's frustrating because it makes me look like an idiot who straight-lined at full speed into oblivion.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Saturday August 15 2020, @08:13PM
Actual humans play slither.io? I figured that I was winning cuz I figured out the moves the various bots were making. Go figure....