Starlink will take on fibre in South Africa

[Jamie McKane]

Starlink will take on fibre in South Africa

The imminent arrival of Starlink and other new innovative low earth orbit (LEO) satellite services will radically change perceptions about the feasibility of satellite Internet in South Africa.

This is according to Q-KON CEO Dawie De Wet, who recently spoke to MyBroadband regarding the impact Starlink would have on current local satellite Internet services.

 

[Flywheel]

Gotta love 40ms from here to Australia. I'd gladly pay just for the latency, even if speeds are a tad slower than fibre.

 

[Sinbad]

No it won't.

 

[|tera|]

Depends on requirements of the end user.
For myself, my data usage comes in at about 180GB per month.
Sometimes I download, sometimes I don't.
If I don't download, that 180GB is way less.

So looking at what I'm paying now, below R650 per month.
I won't switch to a satellite provider anytime soon or in the future.

 

[DavidP]

No it won't.

Its going to be congested before they reach anticipated user capacity, mark my words.

 

[Hummercellc]

I am tempted to order 1 and see

Once launched

 

[LOM]

And as with a free market, those who can do better will move on.

 

[B-1]

I know a lot of people who are on LTE type connections who are unhappy and would like to swop to fiber but can't. This would be pretty enticing for them but replacing fibre would be unlikely.

 

[Gudnews]

Here's hoping because I'm sure Elon doesn't even know what FUP stands for regarding the internet.

 

[backstreetboy]

Lol what is this oke smoking? Paying $500 upfront + $100 monthly vs just paying +-R650 p/m and no upfront costs. Yeah sure

 

[LOM]

Lol what is this oke smoking? Paying $500 upfront + $100 monthly vs just paying +-R650 p/m and no upfront costs. Yeah sure

Tell me about that 300Mbps service for R650.

 

[Magnum]

Its going to be congested before they reach anticipated user capacity, mark my words.

This is Elon. He will say He would like to see you try and congest that.

 

[backstreetboy]

Tell me about that 300Mbps service for R650.

Don't need that at all. Can stream 4k fine on my 20mb line.

 

[LaraC]

Wow! All the small towns and farms that do not have access to fibre will be smiling from ear to ear.

 

[|tera|]

Wow! All the small towns and farms that do not have access to fibre will be smiling from ear to ear.

I'm in that position.
LTE works fine without issues.
There's actually very few places left that don't have good LTE coverage by either of the top mobile networks.

 

[Genisys]

Don't need that at all. Can stream 4k fine on my 20mb line.

That is hogwash. Bandwidth isn't a one size fits all thing. You might be fine with 20Mbps, I am not. I'd rather pay for more speed than waste time on a download. Using this logic, Telkom's 4Mbps was capable of streaming 720p, so 4Mbps is fine?

 

[moondoggie86]

Its going to be congested before they reach anticipated user capacity, mark my words.

Linus tech tips posted two vids with the latest testing speeds and latency.

They have 2 or 3 layers of satellites operating at different distances. The system also detects congestion on a satellite and redirects the connection to a less congested one. They are also planning to launch more satellites.

Whether this will actually work only time will tell but its good to have competition.

Only thing that's for sure is that they generally have a good time with tech that doesn't need to land again

 

[LaraC]

I'm in that position.
LTE works fine without issues.
There's actually very few places left that don't have good LTE coverage by either of the top mobile networks.

Unless I'm mistaken, MTN and Vodacom are rather expensive with their LTE deals.

 

[|tera|]

Unless I'm mistaken, MTN and Vodacom are rather expensive with their LTE deals.

Not that much, no.
You can get a 1TB package at MTN or Telkom for roughly R999 per month.
Voda, not sure. Will have to check.

 

[system32]

Elon Musk on 22 Feb stated:

(Starlink) speed will double to ~300Mb/s & latency will drop to ~20ms later this year

I guess it's when the Space Lasers come online.

Starlink will take on fibre in South Africa

No it won't - not starlink target market.
But it will help to reduce price of some fibre packages like MetroFibre