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You connect to Loon balloons with your regular cellphone whereas StarLink requires a "pizza-box-sized" antenna. They solve slightly different problems.
by shpx 6y ago
You connect to Loon balloons with your regular cellphone whereas StarLink requires a "pizza-box-sized" antenna. They solve slightly different problems.
- sgtnoodle 6y agoIt's likely easier to set up a solar powered cell tower on the ground with a starlink antenna on top, than to float the same equipment on a balloon though.
- hckrnrd 6y agoDon’t forget about Amazon’s Kuiper System. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon-marks-breakthrough-in-project-kuiper-development https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon...
- Tepix 6y ago"Pizza-box-sized" was a placeholder. The Starlink antenna ("Dishy") has a diameter of 59cm https://i.imgur.com/ULwOGxs.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ULwOGxs.jpg
- shpx 6y agoThat's a 12 inch medium pizza, without the box. An antenna of that size can't be carried by normal people going about their daily lives. More people are willing to buy a phone and a phone plan (Facebook was even willing to subsidize the plan in India with Internet.org) than buying a phone, a phone plan, an antenna and a StarLink plan. That's even more true for people who aren't internet users yet.
- Melkman 6y agoMost people will already have a phone and a phone plan but missing coverage in many places. Starlink makes it pretty cheap and easy for network operators to place solar/wind powered cell towers without need to dig wired connections or make microwave chains. That can seriously speed up the rollout to improve coverage. And users don't have to do anything.
- djrogers 6y ago> That's a 12 inch medium pizza I don’t know what kind of barbaric society you hail from, but here in civilization 12” is a small pizza. ;-)
- Tepix 6y agoThe dishy is almost 24 inches, he is wrong. That's quite a bit bigger than even a large pizza.
- jrockway 6y agoI thought pizzas were measured by their circumference, not their radius. If so, that's a 72" pizza. I measured out 59cm on a measuring tape and compared it to my refrigerator, and that's much larger than any pizza I have ever seen.