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Per phone might be low bandwidth, but tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of phones is not low bandwidth.
by geocrasher 5y ago
Per phone might be low bandwidth, but tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of phones is not low bandwidth.
- Retric 5y agoAnd how many iPhones are going to be used out of network? I can see people paying an extreme rate of say 10$/minute with serious warnings in a true emergency. But worldwide it might only be 100 phones at a time even with 10’s of millions of iPhones. Meanwhile averaging 100 calls * 10$/ minute is 1/2 billion dollars a year which could pay for bandwidth on LEO satellites. Those numbers are of course pulled from thin air, but iridium suffers because few are going to keep such expensive service on a just in case basis. However, the technology and economics are really close to working out.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoI carry an iridium hotspot when away from civilization and I’d definitely use an eSIM in my iPhone to get access to LEO sms or voice calls in a pinch. One less device to carry.
- nullityrofl 5y ago> Per phone might be low bandwidth Yes, but you used the comparison to Starlink receivers. Per-phone is all that matters to refute your receiver size concern. The reporting suggests that Apple partnered with Globalstar for delivery. I don't think anyone is under any illusions that Apple suddenly launched a LEO fleet but there's a lot of providers of satellite mobile telephony in the space and Globalstar is one of them. Low bandwidth satellite does not take huge hardware anymore. You can buy Iridium or Globalstar mobile hotspots that are handheld in size (e.g., Iridium Go!). Many trail runners carry Garmin InReach which is phone-sized.