Starlink is a satellite communications company backed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The company has plans of entering the Indian borders in mid-2022. One thing that’s very highly likely is that satellite broadband plans will be much more expensive than the normal fixed-line broadband plans. However, they will be worth it for people who can’t get fiber internet delivered to their homes or in the remote regions of the country. One thing that Starlink aims to do is enhance overall online multiplayer gaming for the users.
Elon Musk Says Starlink Working on Reducing Latency/Ping
As per a tweet from Elon Musk, Starlink broadband is working on enhancing the latency of its internet connections. For multiplayer online gaming, users need ultra-low-latency to be able to play the game in real-time with others.
This is what Starlink is working on. The satcom company is working on reducing the latency/ping for the users so that they can get a better experience out of online gaming. As of now, the latency of a Starlink broadband connection can range from anywhere between 20ms and 88ms. Whenever it is as high as 88ms, a user can face significant delay while playing multiplayer games with others.
Starlink wants to reduce the latency below 20ms. For doing so, the company is targeting to build more ground stations around the globe. On top of this, as per Musk, Starlink is streamlining the internet packet routing across its network.
Going by the words of Musk, Starlink only requires 10 milliseconds for routing the internet data if everything is optimised. Further, Musk said that the laser links in the orbit can reduce the long-distance latency by as much as 50%.
The company is already allowing Indians to prebook a satellite connection by paying a $99 fee or Rs 7,265. It will be interesting to see at what time Starlink comes out with the broadband connection in India.
