[porphyra]

One cool thing about Starlink is that it can potentially improve latency across the world. In optical fibers the light travels only two thirds as fast due to the index of refraction. But in space you can use a laser to send the data in a straight line in a vacuum.

[wolvoleo]

Um yeah but the transmission path is longer and the equipment and signal processing on each hop also adds latency. I really doubt it'll make much of a difference.

[cortesoft]

I doubt the transmission path is longer, fiber optic cables aren't laid in perfectly straight lines between all points.

[wolvoleo]

I mean with satellite it's longer. You have to go up and down, and starlink sats prefer sending data streams back to the ground as soon as they can (because the laser interconnect capacity is limited).

And variable, no less due to the high differential speed of the satellites. And the signal conditioning is much more involved than on the ground.

[porphyra]

Regarding the going "up and down", Starlink satellites orbit at about 500 km above the Earth's surface compared to the Earth's radius of 6400 km. For longer distances it will still be worthwhile. Right now, you're right that we are limited by satellite laser interconnect capacity though.

[downrightmike]

basic math says light travels faster across the surface shorter distances than orbit.