Lighting a fire under satellite broadband
February 20, 2012
ViaSat-1, the highest capacity satellite in the world, powers the next generation of satellite broadband (credit: Viasat)
ViaSat is hoping to leave the rest of the satellite broadband universe in the dust with Exede, a new satellite broadband service that the Carlsbad, Calif., satellite communications company claims will be as good as or better than the average optical fiber connection on the ground.
ViaSat plans to offer the service to about a million subscribers across the United States and Canada.
Subscribers will be able to download at speeds of 12 megabits per second and upload at 3 Mb/s.
Latency is still an issue, of course.
[ IEEE Spectrum ]
Comments (3)
by tchapple
The solution is multiple low orbit satellites. The problem is cost.
by Adelaide Sky
In how many years do you see the latency issue at least be minimized. I think resolution is impossible but do you think there will be a technology that could at least minimize such a crucial problem of satellite broadband?
by Editor
I don’t see any such possibility. It’s a speed-of-light issue: .5 sec. latency from a round-trip transmission (Earth-satellite-Earth) for geosynchronous satellites. Only a problem with interactive use (games, live discussions, etc.).