Why is there often a delay in long distance phone calls?

Factual Questions
1

Often during long distance phone calls there is a delay between your speaking and them hearing and vice versa. Same with news broadcasts overseas (even in friendly areas so it’s not just a government censorship delay). Why does this happen. Is the path really so long that the speed of electrons actually comes into play?

2

Yep. If the signal is routed through a geosynchronous satellite, which orbit at 22,400 miles up, the delay can be pretty close to 1/4 second ((22,400 x 2) / 186,282).

3

Yes, the path is that long, especially if the it’s being transmitted via satellite. If the signal has to make one or two round trips to outer space and back, the speed of light can make a significant difference.

4

Also electrical signals do not propagate through conductors at the speed of light.

5

And the reason it doesn’t happen on all international calls is that we also have undersea cables. When your call is routed through an undersea cable, the path is much shorter and there is no perceptible delay.

6

Well, Q.E.D. you beat me again.

I’ve seen this same effect when I’ve watched a college football game carried on ESPN, but listened to the audio from a local radio station. Since the ESPN signal has to bounce back and forth to 2 or 3 satellites before it gets to me, it’s funny to hear the official describing the call a few seconds before I watch him say the same words.

7

I think this might be an intentional delay. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon and the delay can be 4 or 5 seconds long - there can’t be that many satellites involved. Does anyone know for sure?

On the other hand I have tried listening to the NHK (Japan’s national TV) evening news on regular broadcast while watching it on satellite TV, and the delay is almost exactly 1/4 of a second as QED said.

8

On TV shows, delay is probably there for censorship purposes. If naked guy drops through the ceiling onto the set you want at least a few seconds to mash the standby button before you feed the video to your audience. Delay can also come from equipment either at the source or relays along the way; not everyone is lighting fast in their response.

9

In some cases, TV is delayed by compression/decompression overheads.