Elon Musk tests out X streaming on Starlink internet

Over the weekend, Elon Musk tested out streaming Diablo IV gameplay on his social media platform, called X. The stream was also a test of Starlink, as the entire stream used the satellite constellation for its internet connection.

When Starlink first came out, and as it became popular, many reviews shared one major downside to it, the delay. Delays and spotty connection plagued the young internet service provider, making streaming, gaming, or anything that required real-time connection unusable.

Now, with several thousand more satellites in orbit, Starlink has become the shining city on the hill of what is possible with private spaceflight. You’ll find Starlink on planes, cruise ships, and on the roofs of campers as it’s the go-to service for those on the move.

Musk boasted during the stream that SpaceX has gotten Starlink’s latency down to 30ms with plans to get it even lower to 20ms next year. This would bring latency numbers down close to the average ranges of fiber and cable internet connections, which according to the FCC is near the 12 and 16ms mark respectively.

There is a limit to what Starlink will be able to do when it comes to latency, which is dictated by physics. Starlink, which uses radio waves and lasers to communicate, will be limited by the speed of light for its latency. Musk states that’s about 4-5 ms, however, it will likely take many years to get that low, if it is even possible at all.

Overall the stream went smooth, and you would have probably never noticed it was using satellite internet. That isn’t the case for everyone; however, many users in certain regions of the world don’t get good enough latency to stream still. It also isn’t known what version of Starlink Musk has or if he has a special internal version that improves the service just for the company. Musk regularly tests advance builds of his software at Tesla and has tailored the X algorithm to boost his posts more than others.

Either way, satellite internet has come a long way from several hundred millisecond latency numbers the FCC reported in 2021.