Satellite internet service Starlink, of the company SpaceX, it will soon admit to playing video games online competitively. This was pointed out this week by its CEO, Elon Musk, on Twitter. He argued that it may be possible due to upcoming improvements in latency, the time it takes to send data from one point to the next.

“Ping – a diagnostic tool that allows you to check the status of a connection – should improve dramatically in the coming months. Our goal is less than 20 ms (milliseconds)Musk noted.

“Basically, you should be able to play competitive first person shooter (FPS) games through Starlink”he tweeted. Currently, the latencies of SpaceX’s satellite internet network can range from more than 20 ms to 88 ms. As a result, it is already playable via Starlink today, but with a significant delay during a game of an online first-person shooter, depending on the quality of the connection.

The company’s goal is to reduce latencies to less than 20 ms by the end of this year. To achieve this, Musk said SpaceX is working to establish more Starlink ground stations around the world. These ground stations are connected to local fiber networks and transmit data from the internet to the Starlink satellites in orbit. In addition, the company is working to optimize the routing of Internet packets through the network.

Starlink in Latin America

Starlink will test your service in two towns today disconnected from Chile. The news has been announced by the Chilean government weeks ago. Thus, it will become the first country in Latin America where tests of its operation can be carried out.

The Elon Musk’s company agreed with the government to provide satellite internet to 2 rural and / or isolated communities with digital connectivity problems, through a special permit for the company to carry out its operations for non-commercial purposes. This information has been released in a statement by the Chilean Telecommunications Undersecretariat.

“Starlink was designed for remote communities like those in Caleta Sierra and Sotomó“, He said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, in the statement. Caleta Sierra is a small town located in the Coquimbo Region, more than 400 km north of Santiago, where about 170 people live, mostly dedicated to artisanal fishing, diving and seaweed extraction on its coasts in the Pacific Ocean. For its part, Sotomó is a town with a hundred inhabitants located about 950 km south of Santiago, nestled on the banks of the Puelo River and which can only be accessed by river.

Starlink has promised download potential ranging from 50 to 150 Mb / s, with latency (time it takes to send data from one point to the next) 20 to 40 milliseconds. To make the connection, the company delivered satellite kits that will provide free internet services for a year. After this time, it was agreed that the cost will be absorbed by the municipalities.

On the other hand, the service is already licensed to provide broadband internet service in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. On this last case, the company that applied for the license is Tibro Holland BV Argentina Branch, which must be coordinated with Arsat (the State telecommunications company) the technical aspects of the implementation, since, despite having the license, it is not yet in a position to operate.

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