Slashdot | Really Remote Internet Access. Skype speed over satellite

Slashdot | Really Remote Internet Access: "Re:Performance of Skype over Sat? (Score:5, Interesting)
by epiphani (254981) on Tuesday May 24, @08:20PM (#12629479)
I looked at satalite access a few years ago when I was looking at buying a house too far out of town to get broadband.

Geosynchronous Orbit is at 35,786 Kilometers. It takes light 120ms to get from earth to a geosync satalite. (source [uchicago.edu]).
Hence, 240ms round trip. Back and forth, you to your provider. Another 240ms to get a responce.

The only reason I'd consider satalite access would be for bulk downloads. 540ms on an ssh session would quickly drive me insane.

So add that half second to whatever routing overhead there is involved in skype (I usually see about .3 to .6 of a second delay, talking to people within a few hundred kilometers). I'd say, all in all, pretty crappy experience.

But its better than nothing I suppose."