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SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas
- simonebrunozzi 4y agoI bet that Musk's next company will be a mobile carrier. It will disrupt the industry, like he did with cars.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoYou can't just magically become a mobile carrier. You need spectrum. The only practical way to do it is to buy an existing one.
- mmastrac 4y agoI'm not sure how to title this exactly. There's an article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/spacex-and-t-mobile-to-connect-starlink-satellites-to-cellphones-in-remote-parts-of-u-s-11661473520 https://www.wsj.com/articles/spacex-and-t-mobile-to-connect-...
- candiddevmike 4y agoThis is using cell towers to relay to the satellites right? There were some companies trying to do direct cell to satellite and I didn't think it was feasible.
- verdverm 4y agoDirect from cell to sat, goal is deadzone free, global coverage
- 0xChain 4y agohttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1562956451538014209?s=21&t=qEEMjtx85tk-h-S276mQHg https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1562956451538014209?s=21...
- andrewmunsell 4y agoNo, it's the latter of what you mentioned-- direct cell to SpaceX satellites
- ceeplusplus 4y agoI thought existing Starlink needed a phased array antenna to get decent signal strength. How the hell is a cell phone radio going to reach a satellite?
- trothamel 4y agoReally big antennas, and really slow signals. The satellite is expected to downlink at 2-4 megabit, and uplink will likely be slower still.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago2-4 megabits per "cell zone." If you're really out in a super remote location you might be the only person in your zone, but if you're camping with a dozen friends you'll all be splitting that 2-4 megabits. Still tremendously impressive though, if they're able to pull it off.
- verdverm 4y agoGen 2 sats and a big antenna, will work with existing phones
- andrewmunsell 4y agoThis is definitely what I am interested in-- how existing cell HW can be picked up by their satellites. Even at low data rates for emergency SMS, etc. (caveat, I'm not a HW or radio engineer), this seems like an incredible feat if they can get it to work.
- jacquesm 4y agoGPS is an 'incredible feat', that's advanced magic. This is many orders of magnitude more signal strength, even without beam steering. That said, it will still require a pretty sensitive receiver, but nothing on the order of what your cell phone already contains for GPS.
- hedgehog 4y agoThis sounds like direct to satellite from existing handsets. I can imagine that LTE at 550km is possible but quite a feat of engineering.
- basementcat 4y agoAST SpaceMobile will be launching its first cellular base station satellite on a Falcon rocket later this year. https://ast-science.com/ https://ast-science.com/
- ronsor 4y agoHow exactly does that work? Cell phones have such small antennas and put out a relatively weak (and omnidirectional) signal. I think the phone would have trouble receiving the satellite's transmissions and vice versa.
- syedkarim 4y agoBig antennas (25 square meters?) which are highly directional go along way to improve the link budget. The main lobe is focused on a pet small area of land. My guess is they will also use the lowest bitrate modulation/coding for additional improvement to the link budget. I think LTE goes down to QPSK 1/12, which supports demodulation down to about -7 SNR? Something around there.
- wildzzz 4y agoMassive phased array that could potentially support multiple spot coverage. You still need a bunch of satellites to ensure continuous coverage unlike GEO birds that can cover a whole continent so it will be awhile until you can get worldwide (or nearly worldwide) coverage. With a really fancy DSP box and enough bandwidth, you can account for Doppler. The speeds won't be great but it will certainly be good enough for voice and SMS. Adding things like mesh networks, you could drop a small server rack and generator at any where in the world and create a robust cell network to cover disaster zones.
- anonymousiam 4y agoI watched the announcement. Knowing Musk, I'll believe it when I see it, but it sounds promising. Apparently the G2 Starlink satellites will be equipped with large antennas to support cellular users on the existing spectrum. Video was live-streamed, and still available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzli-Ww26Qs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzli-Ww26Qs
- cma 4y agoGarmin inReach but works on any phone and a bit more bandwidth so not restricted to emergency messages. Also free with most T-Mobile plans (inReach is currently expensive, but may drop in response if that isn't a capacity only issue).
- mlindner 4y agoKey notes: * Everywhere in the US and US territories including ocean waters you will get T-Mobile service through Starlink satellites, no additional hardware needed (for the person owning the cell phone anyway) * Beta service starting end of 2023 * Included for free with most T-Mobile plans other than the cheapest plans * More limited features may be added earlier, i.e. texting or emergency calling * Total available bandwidth will be 2-4 megabits per cell zone so this is not intended to be a replacement for conventional cell service but a way to provide service to completely or almost completely unpopulated areas of the US * T-Mobile wants to encourage other carriers in other countries to give up similar mid-band bandwidth (what T-Mobile is giving to SpaceX) and to any carriers who do, T-Mobile will offer reciprocal roaming where anyone from those countries visiting the US will also be able to use this service and T-Mobile will do the same for T-Mobile customers visiting in those other countries. One unclear point: It supposedly depends on gen2/v2 satellites which depend on launching Starship, but there was a comment that they may launch a "v2 mini" on Falcon 9 and it was unclear if those will also support the hardware for T-Mobile service.
- nootropicat 4y agoWhat the... is that what's possible with 5G? Amazing, and even days ago I was thinking of satellite smartphone internet as something scifi because of (clearly incorrect!) complicated antenna requirements.
- fragmede 4y agoSatellite phone Internet previously existed, it's just crazy expensive.
- jupp0r 4y agoIt’s $10 per month for my Garmin InReach which gives you emergency comms and let’s you upgrade to unlimited SMS and some other stuff for $60. I use it a lot and it’s very reasonable. Runs on Iridium.
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- samstave 4y agospace based global coverage scares the shit out of me, especially when its 100% commercial interests. Thought you could be untrackable off grid? Think again. Think you can be in an RF free zone, anywhere on planet? Nope. There is no "off-grid" when your grid is literally LAT+LONG 100% data access sounds awesome until you realize that its no longer "surveillance state" and its "surveillance planet"
- wmf 4y agoIf you want to be really disconnected you need to take responsibility and at least enable airplane mode or use a faraday pouch. I noticed that Starlink does obey the RF-free area in West Virginia.
- boredpudding 4y agoOh man, wait till you hear about GPS.
- samstave 4y agoWait until you hear the difference between UPD and TCP.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoI think you might have a point w.r.t. tracking, but you brought up "RF free". There's next to nowhere on earth you can go to escape radio transmissions completely, except a faraday cage or maybe a deep mine. Besides GPS, there's been shortwave radio broadcasts bouncing all over the place for a century.
- jjtheblunt 4y agotypo: UDP
- samstave 4y agoUPDOOTS to you ;-)
- btown 4y agoThis is actually fascinating. T-Mobile doesn’t need a fiber or even cable buildout to a remote location, just power and the local clearances for a tower, they plop a Starlink antenna on the top and bam. Congestion will be a challenge but it will be way better than the current status quo.
- cma 4y agoThat isn't what this is, but they did mention maybe partnering for backhaul in the future (likely with similar tech and frequencies to the home internet, not the frequencies in this announcement).
- verdverm 4y agoThis needs no new towers, direct cell / sat comms with current phones
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoWon't that require a bunch of phone hardware for sat comms?
- charles_kaw 4y ago>Congestion will be a challenge but it will be way better than the current status quo. If they QoS common messaging apps and SMS, it'll be a massive win for a lot of people.
- basementcat 4y agoAST SpaceMobile will be launching a cellular base station satellite on a SpaceX rocket later this year. https://ast-science.com/ https://ast-science.com/
- mlindner 4y agoYes if the SpaceX service succeeds it's kind of a death knell for the likes of AST SpaceMobile and Iridium.
- harpratap 4y agoThe market seems to be big enough for multiple providers. AST will definitely be providing services to Rakuten in Japan and thus many more clients through their Symphony offerings
- jshaqaw 4y agoAST seems to be heading into a cost of capital war with Elon Musk - not a great position to be in. They have been telling investors for years that direct to cell was some secret sauce of theirs and that appears to be BS.
- bjacobt 4y agoMost telcos like to have two or more vendors and almost all large terrestrial networks are built with equipment from at least two vendors. If space based cellular service is viable with good adoption. History says operators will want at least two providers because having only one vendor is risky.
- dangle1 4y agohttps://archive.ph/Y4Jya https://archive.ph/Y4Jya
- joshuamoes 4y agoThis will shake up a lot of things in the sattelite market. It will take a lot of marketshare from satellite trackers like inreach. Also living in a remote area, and being familiar with the existing tracking solutions for transport this could be a lot cheaper per asset. Also remote sensor locations. Anything low bitrate.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoIridium in shambles.
- ta988 4y agoI would still trust iridium more for a life or death situation than T-Mobile...
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- joshuamoes 4y agoThe bigger thing would be availability. I have an inreach and use it probably bi-weekly, however most people cannot justify the 400$ device and subscription, this would be included
- joshuamoes 4y agoI'm curious what ideas are going around the boardroom table right now.
- lxgr 4y agoIt's going to be quite a while before Starlink and the other new solutions will be certified for safety of life, government/military use etc. For example, Iridium only got GMDSS/SOLAS certified in 2020 – before that, Inmarsat was the only approved maritime (two-way) satellite safety provider for several decades.
- nonethewiser 4y agoGood
- trillic 4y agoAnecdotally, 5G is significantly better at line of sight at significant distances than previous technology. While sailing 40+ miles offshore this summer, I've gotten 5G on deck, with decent upload performance using my iPhone, when in years previous I didn't get coverage much beyond 12 miles anywhere around where I sail, despite there being tall buildings with cell towers on them with a 30+ mile horizon for at least 2 decades. I use ATT, but super excited for this cell service anywhere future, will be switching to T-Mobile SIM for my dev phone.
- nonethewiser 4y agoDo you work from a sailboat?
- trillic 4y agoNope; just like getting higher resolution weather and being able to update friends/family with ongoings.
- peteradio 4y agoNot sure what would make 5G any better than LTE for coverage, maybe your towers were simply upgraded to higher power during a 5G upgrade?
- memco 4y agoI’m booking a cruise on which they’re asking $200 for five days of data. This would be helpful if we were too far off shore to get reception to avoid such high fees. Starlink itself currently offers service to ships at a cost of $5000/mo. plus $10,000 for the hardware. This could save a lot of money where a simple mobile data plan would suffice.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y agoThe Justice Department blocking the AT&T/T-Mobile merger has had huge benefits for consumers. Even though I am on another cell carrier, the competition has pushed them to increase their level of service and lower prices.
- Spooky23 4y agoAbsolutely particularly as AT&Ts strategy here is spend billions of federal dollars building out firstnet!
- googlryas 4y agoEver since hearing about Starlink I wondered if SpaceX would eat the lunch of iridium and every other geosync satellite player. Seems like maybe it will happen.
- arbuge 4y agoMore detail here: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/spacex-and-t-mobile-team-up-to-use-starlink-satellites.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/spacex-and-t-mobile-team-up-... "T-Mobile users will be able to use messaging, MMS and certain messaging apps, from remote points across the lower 48 states, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii and even some remote points in the water. Eventually, the service will work with voice, Sievert said. T-Mobile plans to include the service in its most popular mobile plans but did not disclose specific pricing. Musk said the service will work with Starlink’s second generation satellites, which have very large antennae and will be able to transmit directly to a cell or mobile phone. The service won’t require mobile users to get a new phone. Musk said in or after a natural disaster, even if all the cell towers are taken out, the planned service should work."
- mlindner 4y ago> T-Mobile plans to include the service in its most popular mobile plans but did not disclose specific pricing. No, he said that it would "most likely" be included with the most popular mobile plans for free.
- judge2020 4y ago"I would expect our pricing for this service to be the un-carrier's favorite price: we expect, on our most popular plans, for this service to be included for free" https://youtu.be/Qzli-Ww26Qs?t=851 https://youtu.be/Qzli-Ww26Qs?t=851
- mlindner 4y agoYes, that's what I said. Edit: Downvotes are happening for some reason. "most likely" and "I would expect" mean basically the same thing unless we're playing grammar police. The entire point of my above post was to deny the fact that they "did not disclose specific pricing". That was the part that was incorrect that I was correcting, as shown in the long form direct quote.
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- lettergram 4y agoDear SpaceX, How about you just give me service in middle USA. I pre-ordered in 2021, you’re currently saying I have to wait until 2023. What gives? You’re launching over oceans, Europe, South America, why not Missouri or Indiana or Kentucky?
- post_break 4y agoProbably because the base station in that area is maxed out. Not a limitation of the part in space.
- simfree 4y agoBuilding and shopping dishes at a loss is expensive and requires money to scale, signing roaming agreements that bring in cash with no customer service work or hardware manufacturing required is comparatively easy.
- SECProto 4y ago> I pre-ordered in 2021, you’re currently saying I have to wait until 2023. What gives? The current network in Missouri and Indiana and Kentucky is saturated [1]. This will get better as they launch the next shell of satellites, and as they upgrade the satellites to v2 (more/better antennae, laser interlink). There can only be so many subscribers per "cell" on the map. [1] https://www.starlink.com/map https://www.starlink.com/map
- wongarsu 4y agoThe satellites aren't geostationary. That satellite that's currently over your head will also travel over Europe, South America and even some oceans. Would be kind of a waste not to use it there too.
- mlindner 4y agoBecause your area is already at capacity. It doesn't affect you for them to operate in other locations.
- hedora 4y agoYou can always pay extra for their marginally slower RV service.
- xcskier56 4y agoWhile I see the great potential in this technology, the collateral damage is the loss of places where one can truly disconnect. I just got back from 4 days camping at a remote mountain lake with zero phone coverage, and it’s one of the most incredible ways to fully recharge and step away from the day to day treadmill of the modern world. When we loose the possibility to completely disconnect, I at least, will feel a loss of the true wilderness. I’m not debating the usefulness of this or saying it shouldn’t happen. Having cell service everywhere will undoubtedly save lives, but it’s not without a price in loosing true wildernesses
- mijowi 4y agoYou could just not bring your phone. I would still feel disconnected without any civilization around.
- swatcoder 4y agoYou could already bring a satellite phone wherever you were, could probably have tuned an AM radio into something if you had wanted, etc Disconnecting is a choice you make, not a place you go.
- mef 4y agowhy not just not bring your phone? or keep it in airplane mode?
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- imoverclocked 4y agoNot to be snarky, phones do have an “off” button. There is no reason we can’t have a little disconnectedness anywhere we choose. Ie: the problem isn’t the connection, it’s the expectation that just because there is a connection there is also a need to respond.
- geoffeg 4y agoI think the problem isn't me turning my phone off, it's other people not turning their phone off.
- joshmn 4y agoI'm still baffled that I get better service in the middle of a lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness than on the shore. I tried T-Mobile for service, I tried Verizon, and I tried AT&T, and for whatever reason, I could run a decent speed test in the middle of many lakes, but not anywhere else.
- extheat 4y agoLess network congestion probably? Maybe something in the area is causing interference on the mobile frequencies.
- kortex 4y agoFresnel zones are weird. Radio waves don't always behave like line-of-sight would suggest. So out on the water, you might be farther from the tower as the crow flies, but there may be less interference, obstruction, multipath error, etc.
- elihu 4y agoAlso, water specifically has good propagation characteristics. (Salt water is best, iirc.) At least, I think that's true for the longer wavelengths more typically used with HAM radio. I don't know if it holds for microwave-ish frequencies like cell phones would use.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y agoInterestingly the ARRL distance records have several "rain scatter" propagation entries at higher frequencies... https://www.arrl.org/distance-records https://www.arrl.org/distance-records
- Thlom 4y agoBack in the day when we had a VHF/UHF TV antenna on the side of the house I noticed the quality varied with the tide. Our house were 15 meters or so above sea level and the TV tower were on the other side of the fjord. Some channels we could only watch during high tide.
- noncoml 4y agoCan someone smarter than me explain what’s in it for Starlink?
- wmf 4y agoT-Mobile is paying for this. They might be paying quite a bit since it requires adding a large antenna to every Starlink satellite.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoSpectrum. T-Mobile owns the spectrum they are using.
- sounds 4y agoI think it's a long bet that eventually cell phones will replace the dish (user terminal).
- devindotcom 4y agoAccommodating the doppler effect is non-trivial, Lynk has demonstrated it with its own satellite but doesn't exactly have the orbital presence of Starlink: https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/29/lynk-demos-global-satellite-connection-for-ordinary-phones-and-prepares-for-commercial-launch/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/29/lynk-demos-global-satellit... This will definitely be a common thing from multiple providers in a few years though.
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- dataflow 4y agoHow will this work in terms of spectrum usage across countries? Will every country have to allocate the same frequencies as the carriers involved in the US? Will every phone have to support particular bands used in the US? A bit confused about how they anticipate tackling the hurdles here.
- extheat 4y agoI imagine that the satellites can switch frequencies within a small margin as they commonly need to do that when faced with interference. They can already shut off when traveling over countries where they don't have broadcast permission. But yes, it seems like ~2GHz is what SpaceX/T-Mobile is using here, so they'd need approval around those frequencies or more antennas on the satellites for higher frequencies which doesn't make alot of economic sense. Also the penetration will get worse the higher in frequency they go.
- thecompilr 4y agoI hope virtual providers on t-mobile network will also benefit. I use google fi, and it would be an enormous perk.
- joshe 4y agoThis will be interesting, one advantage Verizon has had is more area coverage in many states. In Northern California I switched from Tmobile -> Verizon just for this reason. It has been much better. This is for stuff like on a random beach, at a camping spot or just driving around in hills in the North Bay. I've never noticed any difference in SF. I thought competitors would never catch up, because tower buildout is so difficult. This has the potential to leapfrog over that. To me a reliable 2/3G experience everywhere would be superior to higher speeds in suburbs (if that's Verizon's benefit). Also I miss the Tmobile travel experience, you just land and it works for free in many countries. I'd happily switch back.
- jorvi 4y ago> Also I miss the Tmobile travel experience, you just land and it works for free in many countries. I wish T-mobile made this work both ways. T-mobile USA customers get to chill on the network in any country, but if you’re a T-mobile NL or Germany or whatever customer, you don’t get free roaming anywhere outside of Europe.
- throwfaraway9 4y agoAnd so begins the next chapter of "Our Electromagnetic Prison".
- hughes 4y agoJust add another layer of tinfoil.
- tomcam 4y agoColor me not the least impressed. I pay $200/month for my family to use T-Mobile. Data barely works in my backyard--and I'm one city over from their headquarters. I've called them and I've Tweeted. They energetically tell me they're taking action and... nothing happens.
- wmf 4y agoHave you considered a CellSpot? It served me well in the days when my phone didn't support Wi-Fi calling.
- tomcam 4y agoThat is a good suggestion, thank you. Unfortunately when I’m out of the backyard it means I am doing a ton of work that doesn’t benefit by my carrying an extra device around
- pokerhobo 4y agoSo why haven’t you switched carriers already?
- tomcam 4y agoI would love to but it’s a long-term contract
- ericabiz 4y agoI believe this is SpaceX trying to stay one step ahead of Apple. Anyone else remember this strange rumor about iPhones including satellite capability a year ago? https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/29/iphone-13-to-feature-leo-to-make-calls-and-text/ https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/29/iphone-13-to-feature-le... Now you have Apple’s event in a couple weeks themed “Far Out” with space pictures. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Apple announced something similar, possibly with Globalstar instead. Of course, Apple’s solution will likely only work with iMessage. So of course Musk comes out first, with the “we are doing it too, but it will work with any phone.” Interesting times.
- bhauer 4y agoIf you are right, T-Mobile's effort to get Apple onboard with making the necessary changes to separate iMessage payload from regular cell data on these special low-bandwidth space-cells could be a challenge.
- fragmede 4y agoNot really. Apple gives T-Mobile the hostnames/IP addresses they use for iMessage, and T-Mobile configures their APN to only allow connections to those addresses. There's a lot that happens on the backend for cell data to work that consumers don't see.
- jahlove 4y agoThey need to know more about the payload, so that they don't try to upload a video through starling, for instance.
- vineyardmike 4y agoAlready solved on in-flight wifi.
- vineyardmike 4y agoThey figured it out for the free inflight wifi that allows messaging.
- 6d6b73 4y agoIt's just another way for Musk to keep Spacex from going bankrupt. This will not work well for TMobile but SpaceX will get some money to stay afloat. Another Musk's scam.
- uptown 4y agoSomebody seemed to have the info a little early: https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1562961046419427329 https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/156296104641942732...
- woevdbz 4y agoHow does the radio link budget work from the cell phone to the satellite? (I understand downlink can work with powerful tx at the satellite end but most cell phones transmitters are much lower power)
- shaklee3 4y agothis is why he said it could take 30 min to get a text out. it's essentially noise/a very low bit rate on uplink.
- userbinator 4y agoI was momentarily puzzled at the title as I thought "Increasing Connectivity from Space" meant astronauts using T-Mobile.
- dang 4y agoWe changed the URL from https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1562954090996346880 https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1562954090996346880 whilst merging this thread and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32601899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32601899.
- hk1337 4y agoWe’ll see. This will be interesting to see how it plays out. Both T-Mobile and SpaceX are capable companies but they always boast these grandiose plans that technically do what they say but turn out to be lackluster. *EDIT* excluding the space exploration division of the company. I had a brain fart for a moment and forgot about its huge successes. I was thinking more on the satellite internet portion which this would be concentrated on with T-Mobile most likely.
- imwillofficial 4y agoWhat has SpaceX done that has turned out even remotely lackluster?
- hk1337 4y agoOkay, excluding the space agency portion. I honestly forgot about that for some reason. Because of the nature of the post, I was focused on the satellite internet part of the company. Which has been somewhat lackluster.
- joshuamoes 4y agoHow so, I personally know quite a few people using the service, and it has been nothing close to lackluster.
- shaklee3 4y agostarlink so far has been lackluster compared to the promises, and it's only getting worse.
- imwillofficial 4y agoNobody on earth agrees with you.
- shaklee3 4y agoExcept the FCC, users on Reddit, most news outlets doing investigative journalism, etc.
- mandeepj 4y agoHow many of you are not convinced that StarLink will launch a smart phone soon? Tesla has all the related tech and StarLink has the connectivity. I guess at this point, it's just a matter of time.
- wmf 4y agoRemember the Facebook phone? A slam dunk, right? Or the Fire Phone? (More like Fyre Phone.)
- mandeepj 4y agoYou notice a pattern there? A phone should be generalized; both the phones that you mentioned were narrowed down by its parent company to their own use cases. I guess maybe that's why they FAILED.
- 14 4y agoThe only thing I am thinking of is constant tracking anywhere in the world even outside cell range. My guess is the capability will be always on even in a powered off state. Some sort of faraday cage will be needed to stop it.
- kylehotchkiss 4y agoSure: https://slnt.com/collections/faraday-sleeves/products/faraday-cage-sleeves-for-phones https://slnt.com/collections/faraday-sleeves/products/farada... They probably don’t make a car sized one yet which is a problem since every new car ships with a 4g chip these days that can’t be easily switched off.
- kylehotchkiss 4y agoHow will this play with the national radio silence zone? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio...
- whoopdedo 4y agoStarlink's coverage map currently displays that area as unavailable. Presumably they're able to aim the beam around the quiet zone.
- unixhero 4y ago
- bbbh318 4y ago
- Roark66 4y agoThis is indeed very nice if it is implemented. As for T-mobile, how about they commit to ipv6 on all of their LTE networks? Here in Poland they have a network sharing agreement with Orange which means they use the same infrastructure, but when I use Orange's APN I get an ipv6 address. With T-mobile only ipv4 and they have no plans to implement ipv6.
- boomchinolo78 4y agoWhat do you get other than decreased privacy?
- sparkyqin 4y agomore and more statellites are around the earth, they must be interfered with each other, how do they solve the problem?
- londons_explore 4y agoCan they do that with existing T-Mobile's issued radio licenses? If not, I assume there will be a ~1 year delay while the whole lot goes through FCC approvals and every competing company puts in complaints and lawsuits about how it's unfair...
- londons_explore 4y agoThis announcement is rather early. No capable satellites have been launched yet. The license necessary hasn't been granted (and you can be sure a lot of other companies will object to every detail).
- e40 4y agoThere goes another plot device for movie. Now they’ll have to rely on the battery being dead.
- chinathrow 4y agoSo what I am learning out of this is: nation states (like the US) probably can already track cell phones from LEO as the tech is there - all you need is enough sats and a very large antenna. What am I missing here?
- spaghettiToy 4y ago
- maxcan 4y agoSince terrestrial LTE/5G can penetrate aluminum aircraft hulls, does this mean cell service in the air?
- thibran 4y agoThe thing I would really like to read is: SpaceX IPO
- ROTMetro 4y agoNow give me a crypto over this and route it only through satellites (put a crypto sat up there). Remove money controls from the hands of governments. That would be a crazy revolution.
- irthomasthomas 4y agoSide note: https://mobile.twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1562967311295819778 https://mobile.twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/15629673112... "SpaceX announced a big partnership with T-Mobile, $TMUS. But $TMUS gets 0 options activity. Before the 12:24 pre-news yesterday, someone swept 112k into $TMUS $150 calls for 6/16/2023 at 11:50am! The 30k volume sustained next day, a 1000% increase. Unusual."
- Corrado 4y agoThere's some evidence[0] that Tesla will enable messaging in their cars using Starlink. This would be a bonus for me simply because I often times lose signal in my car near my house, and I'm near my house quite a bit. [0] https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-premium-connectivity-starlink-v2-confirmed/ https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-premium-connectivity-starlin...
- amiralul 4y agoThis service requires Starlink v2 satellites, which require Starship to fly to orbit (regularly). An orbital test of Starship should take place this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s pushed for next year. And there’s a long way from an orbital test to frequently launching Starships with Starlink v2 satellites.
- nopay 4y agohttps://archive.ph/LGnFS https://archive.ph/LGnFS