Elon Musk says you can stream sports in the glorious 8K res using Starlink from Antarctica

Elon Musk has just posted on X that you can now watch live sports in the glorious 8K resolution in Antarctica using Starlink.

A research team used Starlink running from the laptop compartment of a backpack, with the satellite connectivity boasting 173Mbps speeds with 92ms latency. That's an impressive feat considering Antarctica is all the way at the South Pole, where there are... well... no ISP options at all apart from competing satellite internet providers that aren't as good as SpaceX's Starlink tech.

Streaming 8K video isn't easy either, requiring 100Mbps or more in my personal testing over the years streaming full 7680 x 4320 video over YouTube. A regular 100Mbps fiber connection would require buffering, but when I upgraded to a 250Mbps connection there was no buffering when streaming 8K video.

• Read more: Antarctic research team pumps out real-time 8K video from Antarctica using Starlink

The 173Mbps speeds from Starlink in Antarctica are perfect for 8K streaming, while the 92ms latency isn't good for competitive shooters, but still fantastic for other games.

Antarctica feels like another whole planet at times, but the research team has just done an incredible thing with some free marketing for SpaceX and its Starlink satellite internet connectivity. 173Mbps download with 14.8Mbps upload and 92ms latency is impressive, now I want to see the download speeds from Steam downloading some big games.

One of the replies to the post on X was from Mason Rothman who is using a Starlink Mini, where he said: "I'm pulling around 150ish most of the time in my undisclosed location with my Mini. I don't (have to) take it out of my backpack as I have it externally mounted with some bungees just to be safe. I just sit my backpack down, pop my collapsible chair and table out and plug into my Anker 737. Around 3 hrs is what I get off my Anker 737. Around 3ish for my Alienware while gaming".

Impressive mobile setup with Starlink Mini there, too.