What is a Normal Satellite Internet Latency?
As speed goes, satellite Internet is comparable to other forms of broadband Internet, but satellite Internet struggles in the latency department. Because signals must be sent to geostationary satellites in orbit and back again, satellite latency tends to be very high. Latency largely depends on the type of satellite connection being used.
Other People Are Reading
-
Types of Satellite Internet
-
Essentially two types of satellite Internet exist: one-way and two-way connections. With a one-way connection, uploads are handled through a telephone wire by way of standard dial-up connectivity. With a two-way connection, both download and upload streams are received and sent directly from a satellite dish.
Latency Ranges
-
One-way satellite Internet connections have much lower latency than two-way connections, usually around 500 milliseconds (ms), and never under 400 ms. Two-way connections can experience latency upward of 1150 ms, while averaging around 850 ms. (1000 ms equals 1 second.)
-
One-Way Connections
-
One-way satellite Internet connections are able to attain much lower latency because only one stream of data, the download stream, must travel the approximately 44,600 mile round trip into orbit and back.
Two-Way Connections
-
Two-way satellite Internet connections must make the same round trip twice if data is being sent as well as received. This means latency is usually twice that experienced on one-way connections.
Logistics of Satellite Data Transfer
-
Satellite connections have a minimum latency of 238 ms under ideal conditions due to the amount of time it takes for the radio wave to travel to the satellite and back. This does not include all the normal additions to latency experienced with all Internet connections.
-
