Super-speed Internet satellite blasts off in Japan.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by mrbud, Feb 23, 2008.

  1. mrbud

    mrbud

    This is an interesting article. I never thought satellite internet could ever be faster than Cable or DSL.
    .........................................................................................................

    Super-speed Internet satellite blasts off in Japan
    (CNN) -- Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver "super high-speed Internet" service to homes and businesses around the world.

    A rocket carrying a super-fast Internet satellite lifts off from its launch pad on the Japanese island of Tanagashima.


    The rocket carrying the WINDS satellite -- a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- lifted off its pad at 5:55 p.m. (0855 GMT).

    If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the Internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services.

    The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.

    The service initially would focus on the Asia-Pacific region close to Japan, a JAXA news release said.

    "Among other uses, this will make possible great advances in telemedicine, which will bring high-quality medical treatment to remote areas, and in distance education, connecting students and teachers separated by great distances," JAXA said.

    The rocket was launched from Japan's Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center
     
  2. BCE

    BCE

    Thanks for sharing that. It sounds great if it's offered for a reasonable rate. :)
     
  3. sim03

    sim03

    Great stuff. Although satellite internet will always suffer from at least 1-second round trip ping times, by design. Not for scalpers, if any, among those Japanese forex wizard housewives.
     
  4. TraderZone

    TraderZone Guest

    if they offer cable TV and "VOIP" phone, all packaged for a good price, this would be phenomenal... Imagine the savings of having to lay new cable, like VZ was doing with FIOS...
     
  5. I currently use Hughes Net satillite for my internet access. I trade with IB and my execution times for trades are instantaneous. I can't say that all my internet wanderings are as fast as cable/DSL but trade executon is.

    Editorial comment:

    Too bad our country (USA) has to spend a billion dollars monthly blowing the crap out of Iraq while Japan spends their money on productive things. I read recently that 'high-speed nternet' in Japan was something like 62 times faster than in USA.

    Everybody in the US could have cheap, high-speed internet if our priorities were properly aligned.
     
  6. BCE

    BCE

    I agree with your editorial. A shame really.
    Just curious how much a month you pay for Hughes Net? Was there a setup fee? Is it down much? etc. Sounds like you like it.
     
  7. I paid $600 for the original equipment back in 2002. This year I upgraded to the latest equipment for $125.

    The monthly charge is fairly expensive: 2 S&P Emini points net of commission ($89 per month). They have a cheaper level ($59 per month) but I was exceeding the 'Fair USage Limit' due to data feeds and other stuff.

    I would get cable internet but the local company won't run cable up to my house because of the distance. They claim it would be about $1800 to run the cable. The satellite is better than nothing but not the best that there is.
     
  8. Sounds great - too bad about the 1-second round trip ping times though...
     
  9. T(-)14mo.=Hello LIQUIDITY
     
  10. kinar

    kinar

    as other people have said, satilite internet service (and all other data transfer for that matter) is always going to have higher latency than cable/dsl. It is a simple matter of physics.

    Geosynchronous orbit (where the satelitte is) is about 35million meters above the earth's surface. All traffic must travel that distance twice (to and from) for each trip. And for a standard ping, we are talking two trips...for a grand total of 140million meters traveled as standard "response time".

    this is comperable to 394,000 meters (along the surface of the earth), round it to 400K and double that distance for a grand total of 800,000m (or approx 175 times less distance traveled than the data would travel via satelite.)

    You might make the argument that data doesn't travel a straight line along the surface for Cable/dsl. But unfortunately, it doesn't for satellite either. On a sat connection, you still have the same problem. Its just that your NID (the box on the side of your house) where the signal leaves your property is essentially 70million meters away.

    Additionally, as others have mentioned, via most current internet providers will be about 1000ms. Increasing the volume of traffic through the satelitte will not reduce this time, it will simply make it so that satellite based ISPs can service more people on the same pipe, which if american (and worldwide) business has taught us will reduce the amount that your ISP will actually care about you and Increase the amount of time you spend waiting for support if anything goes wrong.

    But realisticly, if you are happy with your orders going through within 1sec (on a good day) of hitting the submit button, this doesn't doesn't matter to you.

    As for the comments about Japan VS America concerning internet infrastructure and spending.

    That is simply a matter of geographics....

    Surface area of Japan - 375000 sq km
    Surface area of US - 9,830,000 sq km

    US = about 26 times the size of Japan which means it will take exponentially more materials, labor, time to create an equivilant infrastructure. We are talking strictly hardware here.

    Population of Japan = 127,433,494 (2007 est)
    Population of US = 303,429,000 (2008 est)

    just about 2.5 times the number of people which means they are about 10 times more dense....

    Japan = 337 people/km²
    US = 31 people/km²

    Take a look at the the affects of Area vs Internet speeds in the US alone....there are still rural areas where you can't get dialup service or if you can it is at a max of 33kbps. whereas in cities, 1.5Mbps is considered slow.

    If Japan didn't have a emensely better internet infrastructure than the US, I would say they are doing something wrong. Saying that we are spending our money in the wrong places, seems....well, ignorant.
     
    #10     Feb 25, 2008