I’m in an off grid location. I work remotely and do lots of zoom calls. I have no cell service. I have starlink as my primary internet, but I need a backup and it seems geo stationary satellite is the only option from my land (BC, Canada).
It looks like there are a handful of Ku band internet companies that sell in Canada, but I’m having a heck of a time figuring out which satellites they use. Before I order, I want to make sure that I will actually be able to get line of sight, as my neighbour’s trees are ~125 ft tall to the South.
Sitelink, Surf, iDirect and Galaxy appear to be the options…
Even with a view to the satellite, you will find the inherent latency of geostationary to be a real challenge with Zoom. When I was using Zoom a lot, I found it necessary to drive to my church and use the internet there (cable based) as Zoom simply did not work satisfactorily on Viasat.
That is a valid observation, you might experience a delay when using Zoom over geostationary satellite - especially compared to a low-latency network (such as fiber or LTE), however there are a lot of customers that use it.
It isn’t a question of might. You will experience the delay, it is simply physics. The question is whether it is objectionable or not. A big part of it is understanding it and having those you are conferencing with understand it as well, otherwise they will constantly talk over you not allowing you the 1-2 seconds longer to respond s compared to those with 20 ms latency networks rather than 700 ms.
You are correct, you will experience a delay. Used the wrong word there. And yes, we’re hoping to very soon add an article to our forum about latency over GEO satellite, where we explain the causes and workarounds to have the best possible experience with it.