zlacker

>>alden5+(OP)
So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is probably achievable in ideal situations (eg. 2 satellites very close to each other), so these laser links are used in bursts and the link stays established only for a few tens of seconds or minutes, until the satellites move away and no longer are within line of sight of each other.

And with 2.3M customers, that's an average 1.7 Mbit/s per customer, or 550 GB per customer per month, which is kinda high. The average American internet user probably consumes less than 100 GB/month. (HN readers are probably outliers; I consume about 1 TB/month).

>>mrb+b46
Netflix uses 3-7GB an hour. The average person is spending 4-5hrs a day watching TV. I’d say most are above 100GB/month.

But that’s me.

>>garcia+y66
Who has 4-5 hrs a day to watch television? ..or am I completely out of touch?

>>seemaz+lf6
According to historical Nielsen data[1] from 1991 to 2009: most Americans.

Even back to 1950, for per household data, it was above 4 hours.

[1] https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2009/average-tv-viewing-for...

>>Brybry+pF6
Thats per household, not per person. That's different. And households also tended to get smaller.

>>panick+GY6
The 1991 data and on was 4+ hours per person (older than 2). 7-8 hours per household.

They didn't have per person for the 1950 to 1990 data, only household (pdf in the link).