Eli5: How can we beam unlimited HD satellite TV to billions of homes but satellite internet is objectively terrible?

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So, my parents livr in an area where the only internet available is satellite. It sucks.

However, they also have satellite TV and can watch that no problem.

What’s the difference? Is it just a scale issue where TV has more money and resources compared to satellite internet companies?

In: Technology

39 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

As the others said TV signal is shared between all subscribers while Internet data is not. While data is sent to one subscriber the frequencies can’t be used to transmit data to other subscribers nearby from the same satellite.

Try Starlink. While it’s not as good as fiber or cable it’s much better than “traditional” geostationary satellite internet. 20-30 times lower latency, no data caps, and higher speed. They figured how to manufacture satellites cheaper (mass production vs a single monster satellite) and launch cheaper (rocket reusability). That allowed them to orbit satellites much lower profitably. That in turn allowed them to point much more beams at subscribers. The whole Starlink constellation has several hundred times more beams than all geostationary satellites. The more beams, the more capacity.

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