LEO Satellite Internet is all the rage now. If you haven’t heard the term, you’ve heard of the most popular product: Starlink. This is the product that is making people rethink satellite-based internet, and there’s a good reason: it doesn’t act the way satellite internet used to act.
Why people didn’t want satellite internet in the past
If you looked into satellite internet a decade ago, you’d conclude that it was sort of a “last-chance” kind of product. Prices for the service were higher, speeds were lower, and you couldn’t use much data before running into a cap of some sort. The worst part was the latency. Latency is a term that describes that period of time between when you click on something and when you get some sort of response. If that time period is too long, you get antsy and eventually you get frustrated. I agree, we’ve all been there.
The problem with traditional satellites
Traditional satellite internet relies on geostationary satellites. Putting a single satellite up in the sky and pointing a dish at it has been the way we’ve done satellite communications for half a century. It works well for something like television, but less so for internet. Internet relies on a two-way stream of communication. That means the dish on your house has to be pretty powerful if it’s going to reach a satellite. That satellite is about 22,000 miles up, so even at the speed of light it takes a little while for data to go up and back down. That’s the reason latency is so high.
It’s worth pointing out that if you have a stationary satellite, you can deal with the latency issue. You just make the satellite fetch all the data you can before the user asks for it. This technique works and is used in cellular communication too, but it requires a lot of data transfer. That can be a problem for traditional satellite internet, at least in the past. Future generations of satellites won’t have that much of a problem.
How LEO satellite changes that
LEO, you see, stands for “low earth orbit.” It means that the satellites aren’t 22,000 miles up. They’re more like 1,500 miles up. That makes a big difference in latency. The problem is, at that altitude they don’t just hover over a single point like geostationary ones. From the point of view of someone on the ground, they whiz by pretty fast. Aiming at only one of them can be a problem.
The solution is to have hundreds or thousands of satellites at the same time. These satellites can be small and inexpensive. You can put up an antenna and without aiming, you’ll get signals from a dozen or more of them. This changes the whole equation. A carrier can increase their capacity by launching more satellites. It’s less expensive to get them up there as well. The satellites themselves only have a lifespan of a few years, so they don’t stay up there after they’re obsolete.
With LEO satellite, you get an experience that’s more like you expect from a cell phone. You may not get the same speeds as most home internet, but you’ll get speeds that are fast enough to do almost anything including streaming video. It’s also possible to have nearly unlimited data. That’s because right now, there’s a lot of capacity and it’s easy to add more.
Is there a downside to LEO satellite internet?
Yes, to be honest there are some downsides. This is brand new technology and you should be prepared to pay a hefty price every couple of years for all new equipment. It’s all evolving very quickly. The first generation of LEO satellites were silver and reflected sunlight. This created problems with astronomers trying to map the heavens. Newer satellites aren’t as reflective, but they do obviously create radio interference because they broadcast a signal.
Right now, there’s really one big player in the LEO market, and I’ve mentioned them before: Starlink. They’re a division of SpaceX, and that company is helmed by the one and only Elon Musk. How you feel about Starlink is going to get tied up in how you feel about Musk and his public persona, inevitably. Amazon and others are expected to get into LEO internet and that may help you make your decision.
Another thing that isn’t mentioned a lot — but should be — is that if you have 3,600 satellites up there (as Starlink does) then it is theoretically possible to hide some spy stuff up there as well. Spying from above has been in the news a lot lately and it’s mostly been stuff like balloons doing the spying. Theoretically, a foreign power could design something to look like a Starlink satellite, put it up there quietly, and it could probably stay up there a decent amount of time before anyone noticed. When it was noticed, it would be hard to “shoot down” without disrupting other LEO satellites. Just something to consider.
Get Starlink accessories and more
If you do decide to go with Starlink, you’ll find that you need a lot of accessories, especially if you’re on a boat or RV. Check out the great selection of Starlink products at Solid Signal now! If you’d rather stay off the LEO bandwagon and you’d prefer a more established company, we work directly with Viasat as well. Our reps would be happy to tell you about the next generation of Viasat products that are designed to offer the same benefits as LEO satellite without all the downsides. Call us during East Coast business hours and we’ll give you all the details! If it’s after hours, fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you.
