4 ms·

> The satellite has to see you and a base station at the same time. The satellites aren't capable of a small amount of buffering? For text messages it shouldn'

by tedivm 4y ago

> The satellite has to see you and a base station at the same time. The satellites aren't capable of a small amount of buffering? For text messages it shouldn't take up much space, and a lag on the delivery is better than no delivery at all.

kylehotchkiss 4y ago
That’s why apples choice is pretty meh, if there’s a large scale regional disaster that knocks out communications, globalstars local coverage isn’t going to really let people get around that like iridium or starlink could
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  In general any sort of large scale regional disaster will down any communications network, no matter how robust, as people panic and simultaneously try contacting emergency services or their loved ones.
  - lxgr 4y ago
    Exactly – in that scenario, who would you even message? If all infrastructure within hundreds of kilometers is down, you‘re unlikely to get help even if you can get a signal out.
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      You don’t even have to have that large of a regional disaster affecting hundreds of kilometers. 9/11 took down all telephony in the NYC area due to panicking people overwhelming things. (9/11 was the worst terrorist disaster in the US, but until the towers started falling only the two towers and a few buildings that caught fire were directly impacted. If you were in, say, Brooklyn, you could see it happening but you were in the safe zone.)
kotaKat 4y ago
Nope. Globalstar's voice and data network (specifically) is a literal 'bent pipe'. They use modified CDMA base stations on the ground, and it's all CDMA end-to-end through the sky to the sat and back down to your phone. The original phone they offered (the GSP-1600) was a modification of a Qualcomm QCP-860 that they just slapped the Globalstar stuff on top of. The only difference here is that Globalstar's CDMA authentication was done on a SIM card inside the phone (which is a supported CDMA feature, R-UIM).

by tedivm 4y ago

kylehotchkiss 4y ago

That’s why apples choice is pretty meh, if there’s a large scale regional disaster that knocks out communications, globalstars local coverage isn’t going to really let people get around that like iridium or starlink could

bobthepanda 4y ago
In general any sort of large scale regional disaster will down any communications network, no matter how robust, as people panic and simultaneously try contacting emergency services or their loved ones.
- lxgr 4y ago
  Exactly – in that scenario, who would you even message? If all infrastructure within hundreds of kilometers is down, you‘re unlikely to get help even if you can get a signal out.
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    You don’t even have to have that large of a regional disaster affecting hundreds of kilometers. 9/11 took down all telephony in the NYC area due to panicking people overwhelming things. (9/11 was the worst terrorist disaster in the US, but until the towers started falling only the two towers and a few buildings that caught fire were directly impacted. If you were in, say, Brooklyn, you could see it happening but you were in the safe zone.)

kotaKat 4y ago

Nope. Globalstar's voice and data network (specifically) is a literal 'bent pipe'. They use modified CDMA base stations on the ground, and it's all CDMA end-to-end through the sky to the sat and back down to your phone. The original phone they offered (the GSP-1600) was a modification of a Qualcomm QCP-860 that they just slapped the Globalstar stuff on top of. The only difference here is that Globalstar's CDMA authentication was done on a SIM card inside the phone (which is a supported CDMA feature, R-UIM).