ScotRail Starlink Internet Trials

[Buzby]

Six class 158 trains serving the north of Scotland (Kyle & Far North lines) have been converted to supply on-train passenger WiFi as part of a six month trial and is claimed to be the first time Starlink has been used to provide a service on trains in the UK.

Herald Newspaper

I was too busy looking at the views to bother with looking at my phone, but someone will find this useful!

 

[Milo T.K]

Hopefully a lot faster than icomera

 

[Recessio]

Exciting stuff. I'd be interested to see how the antennas work. My understanding is the dish has to track the movement of the satellite? If so, I wonder how they keep a moving antenna within gauge.

Hopefully a lot faster than icomera

Latency is higher with satellite connections (physically a longer distance for the signal to travel), but yes hopefully the speed and chiefly the coverage will be a lot better

 

[kkong]

Exciting stuff. I'd be interested to see how the antennas work. My understanding is the dish has to track the movement of the satellite? If so, I wonder how they keep a moving antenna within gauge.

Latency is higher with satellite connections (physically a longer distance for the signal to travel), but yes hopefully the speed and chiefly the coverage will be a lot better

The antennas are phased array (electronically steerable), so no physical movement is required.

Similar to the antennas used on aircraft for satellite internet provided by Starlink, Viasat etc.

The latency increase compared to terrestrial mobile networks will not be noticeable for most use cases, especially when using LEO (low earth orbit) satellites such as Starlink.

 

[Buzby]

I wonder how they keep a moving antenna within gauge.

As @kkong notes, the Gen 1 dishes needed to track the constellation, however the new (smaller) squarials have a phased array construction and can be mounted on the roof - and there’s no worry about OLE getting in the way!

 

[Steddenm]

There's a video here about it:

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[poffle]

The antennas are phased array (electronically steerable), so no physical movement is required.

Similar to the antennas used on aircraft for satellite internet provided by Starlink, Viasat etc.

The latency increase compared to terrestrial mobile networks will not be noticeable for most use cases, especially when using LEO (low earth orbit) satellites such as Starlink.

Also although the speed of light is constant in free space, but significantly lower in fibre optic cables. (3x10E8 m/s v 2x10E8 m/s)

The Starlink satellites can have laser links to get the signals to a satellite which is connected to a download location.

 

[kkong]

Also although the speed of light is constant in free space, but significantly lower in fibre optic cables. (3x10E8 m/s v 2x10E8 m/s)

The Starlink satellites can have laser links to get the signals to a satellite which is connected to a download location.

The difference between a few tens and a few hundred of milliseconds in round-trip time isn't going to make a significant difference to the use cases most people have for on-train internet service (messaging, streaming, email).

 

[tfw756rider]

There's a video here about it:

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For people who don't use Facebook, that's just a log-in prompt.

 

[Rick1984]

We had Starlink fitted on the ships I work on .
So much better than previous system.
Unfotunate that it's a Elon Musk company.

 

[oglord]

Unfotunate that it's a Elon Musk company.

Why does that matter?

 

[HSTEd]

Why does that matter?

Well amongst other things, he has history of disabling services on a whim, in response to some imagined slight or in pursuit of some nebulous personal foreign policy.