Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has rolled out service in Nigeria, said it is making significant progress in network quality improvement to enhance user experiences across its global footprints.
The engineering teams behind the satellite internet service provided by Starlink said that they have been working towards achieving a stable 20-millisecond (ms) median latency and minimal packet loss as part of plans to deliver an optimal internet experience to users.
Latency refers to the time delay experienced in a system, network, or process. It is the time it takes for a data packet to travel from its source to its destination. In computing and telecommunications, latency can be influenced by various factors such as network congestion, processing time, and distance between communicating entities. It is also known as “round-trip time” or RTT.
Why Starlink is focused on network quality upgrade
“The Starlink team has been focused on improving network performance with the goal of <20ms latency. Over the past month, we have meaningfully reduced median and worst-case latency for users around the world,” Starlink said on its X account.
A review of Starlink’s performance metrics in Nigeria reveals that download speeds in the country typically range from 25 Mbps to over 150 Mbps. Cities such as Abuja, Lafia, Makurdi, Jos, Bauchi, Ilorin, Ibadan, Ado Ekiti, Benin City, Warri, and Port Harcourt, among others, experience download speeds between 54 Mbps and 155 Mbps. Lagos, the bustling economic centre has higher download speeds ranging from 80 Mbps to 178 Mbps.
Starlink’s upload speeds across Nigeria typically range from 10 Mbps to 23 Mbps. Meanwhile, latency—critical for smooth internet experiences—falls within the range of 32ms to 57ms.
Regarding availability of its sateliite service, Starlink plans to expand its capacity in Lagos during year 2024 due to existing capacity constraints as it is has suspended acquisition of new subscribers in Nigeria’s commercial capital city. However, the service is available in other parts of the country, the company said on its website.
In the United States, Starlink said, median latency has seen a reduction of over 30%, dropping from 48.5ms to 33ms during peak usage hours. Similarly, worst-case peak hour latency has decreased by more than 60%, from over 150ms to less than 65ms. These improvements have not been limited to the US alone, according to the satelite internet service provider which said that “outside of the United States, we have also reduced median latency by up to 25% and worst-case latencies by up to 35%.”
Latency, which is also a crucial factor in internet performance, directly impacts user experience by affecting web page load times, audio-video call quality, and responsiveness in online gaming. Starlink said it measures latency by collecting anonymized measurements from millions of routers every 15 seconds. The 15-second average latencies are then used to calculate median and worst-case latency metrics, particularly focusing on peak usage hours.
Starlink explains that several factors drive latency within their network, including the physical speed-of-light propagation from user terminals to satellites and back, ground latency from gateway sites to internet connection points, and scheduling latency within the network topology. Additionally, efforts have been made to address non-physical limitations within the system, such as processing delays and packet drops.
“Over the past several months, monitoring and metrics have also been added across the network to measure latency on every subsystem down to the microsecond. We have rigorously tuned our algorithms to prefer paths with lower latency, no matter how small the difference and to remove any and all sources of unnecessary and non-physical latency.
This is just a selection of some of the most impactful changes we have made. Since the beginning of the year, teams have deployed and tested 193 different satellite software builds, 75 gateway software builds, 222 Starlink software builds, and 57 WiFi software builds,” Starlink reports.
Starlink’s recent accomplishments extend beyond network enhancements, with SpaceX successfully completing back-to-back Falcon 9 launches from Florida and California, deploying 46 Starlink satellites into orbit, the company said.
“On Sunday, March 10 at 9:09 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This is the 17th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission,” SpaceX announced.
“On Sunday, March 10 at 7:05 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” they added.
These launches, Starlink said, are necessary for improving global internet coverage and reliability.
