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With Starlink soon having ~global coverage, why bother transporting, launching and servicing these aircraft for a one time thing? I don't see the benefit. Will

by tpmx 5y ago

With Starlink soon having ~global coverage, why bother transporting, launching and servicing these aircraft for a one time thing? I don't see the benefit. Will also be really hard to reach low prices for end user terminals with this approach. Very high quality visual/signals surveillance seems like a much more obvious market fit.

Tepix 5y ago
For starters, all network participants need an expensive, large and power hungry Starlink antenna. An airplane could work with smaller devices as endpoints, such as phones.
btilly 5y ago
First, Starlink has limited bandwidth per square mile. Therefore it cannot conceivably provide telecommunications for densely populated areas. Second, all you have to do is make these aircraft compatible with cell phones. So your target population already has "end user terminals" literally in hand. Third, this is not a one-time need. Local disasters happen fairly regularly, and sometimes can be predicted in advance. (For example hurricanes.) There is real value to an instant telecommunications network that can be deployed on short notice. Now I don't claim that this is actually economically viable. But it is not exactly crazy, either.
- tpmx 5y ago
  Pretty good points. Starlink can't do 2G/3G/4G/5G with mobile phones on the ground, ~550+ km away, of course. They should probably look into partnering with e.g. Ericsson Response (https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corporate-responsibility/digital-inclusion/humanitarian-response https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corp...).
kbenson 5y ago
> Very high quality visual/signals surveillance seems like a much more obvious market fit. Oh, yeah, there are already companies the provide complete surveillance of cities or large areas of cities so that even if a crime scene is discovered hours or days later, they can just go back to that time and track vehicle movement to and from the crime scene to wherever it ends up as long as it's in the same (large) area. Reducing the cost of the equipment that does the recording of the area will only make it more accessible to more police departments, for better or worse.

by tpmx 5y ago

Tepix 5y ago

For starters, all network participants need an expensive, large and power hungry Starlink antenna. An airplane could work with smaller devices as endpoints, such as phones.

btilly 5y ago

First, Starlink has limited bandwidth per square mile. Therefore it cannot conceivably provide telecommunications for densely populated areas. Second, all you have to do is make these aircraft compatible with cell phones. So your target population already has "end user terminals" literally in hand. Third, this is not a one-time need. Local disasters happen fairly regularly, and sometimes can be predicted in advance. (For example hurricanes.) There is real value to an instant telecommunications network that can be deployed on short notice. Now I don't claim that this is actually economically viable. But it is not exactly crazy, either.

tpmx 5y ago
Pretty good points. Starlink can't do 2G/3G/4G/5G with mobile phones on the ground, ~550+ km away, of course. They should probably look into partnering with e.g. Ericsson Response (https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corporate-responsibility/digital-inclusion/humanitarian-response https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corp...).

kbenson 5y ago

> Very high quality visual/signals surveillance seems like a much more obvious market fit. Oh, yeah, there are already companies the provide complete surveillance of cities or large areas of cities so that even if a crime scene is discovered hours or days later, they can just go back to that time and track vehicle movement to and from the crime scene to wherever it ends up as long as it's in the same (large) area. Reducing the cost of the equipment that does the recording of the area will only make it more accessible to more police departments, for better or worse.