Posted on 06/28/2017 4:51:45 PM PDT by Mechanicos
Thanks, I see that now, but unless they can get Ping times under 50ms then things like Skype, FaceTime, and gaming still won’t work well. I see they are trying for 30ms or so:
Was 550ms+ at geostationary altitude (22,000 miles) when I had my mom using the WildBlue sat. service...at low-Earth orbit (1,200 miles) they should get about 35ms according to my math. I have my mom (way out in the “boonies”) on cellular data/ISP now (”hotspot” device)...since 4G LTE has arrived in her area it has improved to at least 20 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. I think the upcoming 5G LTE cellular might render this new satellite system obsolete before it time?? (Except for people w/o even cell service. (Waaaay out in the boonies).
They (OneWeb) plans to use Richard Branson’s Virgin/Scaled Composites “LauncherOne” to get the sats (hundreds) into LEO at a “reasonable” cost:
https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/132319
It’s awfully crowded up there.
“As of 5 July 2016, the United States Strategic Command tracked a total of 17,852 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth,[1] including 1,419 operational satellites.[2] However, these are just objects large enough to be tracked. As of July 2013, more than 170 million debris smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in), about 670,000 debris 1–10 cm, and around 29,000 larger debris were estimated to be in orbit.[3] Collisions with debris have become a hazard to spacecraft; they cause damage akin to sandblasting, especially to solar panels and optics like telescopes or star trackers that can not be covered with a ballistic Whipple shield (unless it is transparent).”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
I’m on Gen 5 satellite because it’s the only real option in my area. I guess that’s considered “sky based internet”.
The “method” may be the same, but the program I was referring to is not, neither has it been given any budget for it yet, neither can it use budgeted money from any other program - until and if Congress authorizes it.
In other words, can One Web “cash in” on the federal monies for/from the “Obamaphone” scheme? No. Not unless Congress devises a budget that moves money that way.
That leaves the One Web plan approval by the FCC as a plan that is not yet soaking in federal monies, it just has FCC approval as a commercial telecom plan. We’ll have to see what Congress first “Trump” budget actually gives it, if anything.
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