Super-speed internet satellite blasts off
 

My question would be what about us in places like Florida that have to deal with intense thunderstorms? Would our internet get fucked up during a thunderstorm like Direct TV does sometimes? But cool ...

(CNN) -- Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver "super high-speed Internet" service to homes and businesses around the world.


A rocket carrying a super-fast Internet satellite lifts off from its launch pad on the Japanese island of Tanagashima.

The rocket carrying the WINDS satellite -- a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- lifted off its pad at 5:55 p.m. (0855 GMT).

If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the Internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services.

The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.

The service initially would focus on the Asia-Pacific region close to Japan, a JAXA news release said.

"Among other uses, this will make possible great advances in telemedicine, which will bring high-quality medical treatment to remote areas, and in distance education, connecting students and teachers separated by great distances," JAXA said.

The rocket was launched from Japan's Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center.

sounds cool for download speeds but even it's successful, now we have to wait at least 5 years before it comes to central america or europe. :(
And if the connection will be similar to other satellite connections, that probably won't be so good for gaming or day trading because of lag.

this will open up a whole new line of biz's on the net

That's fucking awesome.....

That is pretty cool

That's going to be sweet.

let's just hope nobody shoots it down ... by mistake :winkwink:

I'm on satellite right now and the biggest issue is the latency. 1000ms up, 1000ms down. I have seen nothing anywhere about latency of their planned service. The WINDs program has been kicking around since around 2005 in forums.

It will be useless for gaming, voip, trading, etc unless they figured out some magical way to trim the latency.

takes you 5 seconds to download a pirated DVD but 30 mins to send a picture in a e-mail.

:1orglaugh

That will be amazing...

Cool. :)

another article on it - http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...9l9INca7yhM0Qw

looks very cool.

That's the first think I thought when I read about it. The main problem with satellite connectivity has always been latency, which I believe probably has something to do with needing to be converted into an appropriate microwave signal, and then sent for a few thousand kilometres before then returning a few thousand kilometres to be converted back again... and so on.

I just setup a satellite in costa rica and I have ping times to yahoo.com of 300ms for $400 per month.

Still 100-150ms over what I'd consider usable, and $400 per month sounds pricey too.

And 10+ years until it comes to New Zealand...

man, not sure who set up your directv, but we have ours on the roof for like 4 years and it has only gone out like once a year, and that has to be an amazingly scary storm...we live in georgia so we get some pretty nasty ones

we had one at our apartment like 5 years ago and it went out all the time, turns out it was because the installer put it on a wobbly part of the roof, so when the wind kicked up it would rock it just enough to fuck it up

It's a reliable / solid connection in the middle of nowhere so I do not complain.

Hopefully it will be available here

Good for big downloads but satelites suck for ping times. No good for gaming of any kind. Might be good for full dvd downloads though

I wonder what the price tag is going to be?