Time to catch up with technology

[mountaindoug]

With cable companies starting you off at 200Mbs and no data caps, when will the satellite industry move forward.  I (and many like me) are in a situation where satellite is the ONLY option we have.  We are being left in the dark ages.  Why is this industry so far behind?

[BirdDog]

Because it is satellite and 200 mbps is unobtainable with only several satellites serving all the customers. Perhaps if you are willing to pay $500/month so they can launch more satellites. Even then it would take years to build and launch them.

Satellite internet is not like satellite TV with signals being broadcast in one direction down to the user.

[BirdDog]

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@jezrawrote:

200Mbps is achievable with wire based technology. Current satellite technology simply can't come close to those speeds. Fortunately, SpaceX is working on the next generation of satellite based internet service called Starlink that utilizes a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellite.  The service should have significant improvements is speed and latency compaired to current satellite technology. 

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True, several players are "working" on LEO internet but I have a feeling it isn't going to happen very soon for most of us.

[C0RR0SIVE]

There's only so much bandwidth available in a given chunk of spectrum over an area...  J2 can easily handle 200Mbps, but that would be like telling only one person in a massive beam that they can get service.

I did the math once upon a time, and it basically came out to, if everyone was to request data at one time, they wouldn't even see 500Kbps.  There's just not enough spectrum there.  Maybe micro-cells will help, but I don't think Geo-Sat can do small cells very easily.