I was looking for the kind of internet speeds that are possible via satellites. GEO satellites tend to have very high latency and LEO constellations like Iridium and Globalstar have lower latencies but their throughput is lesser than ground-based broadband internet. What are the technical reasons that make broadband internet user-speeds difficult to achieve via satellites?
In: Technology
It’s not a technical problem it’s economic. It costs a fortune to put a satellite in orbit, and no one puts them up expecting to lose money on them. To attract customers, prices need to be competitive with ground internet, which means you need a huge number of customers sharing the satellite’s bandwidth to make that return. That many people sharing means everyone gets a small piece so the speeds tend to be lower.
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