[lultimouomo]

Currently:

ground <--> satellite <--> ground <------------> ground

With satellite links:

ground <--> satellite <--> satellite <--> ground

i.e. the sat-to-sat link should be faster than the ground-to-ground link, on the basis that light transmitted in vacuum goes faster than light transmitted in glass. That's the theory at least.

[fastball]

Plus they're transmitting in a straight line without a lot of switches in between.