Why Satellite Internet speed slower than Cable?
Compared to ground-based communication, all geostationary satellite communications experience higher latency due to the signal having to travel 35,786 km (22,236 mi) to a satellite in geostationary orbit and back to Earth again. Even at the speed of light (about 300,000 km/s or 186,000 miles per second), this delay can be significant. If all other signaling delays could be eliminated, it still takes a radio signal about 250 milliseconds (ms), or about a quarter of a second, to travel to the satellite and back to the ground. [14] The absolute minimum total amount of delay is variable, due to the satellite staying in one place in the sky, while ground based users can be directly below with a roundtrip latency of 239.6 ms, or far to the side of the planet near the horizon with a roundtrip latency of 279.0 ms. [15] For an Internet packet, that delay is doubled before a reply is received. That is the theoretical minimum. Factoring in other normal delays from network...