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"Such signal, much wow": Starlink's first texts via "cellphone towers in space"
- cranberryturkey 3y agohe's going to add dogecoin to x.com isn't he?
- benbristow 3y agoto the moon!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- applied_heat 3y agoIt can provide text messaging levels of bandwidth where there is no reception but isn’t competitive with terrestrial towers
- mensetmanusman 3y agoIt is infinitely more competitive than no signal in many parts of the US.
- zamadatix 3y agoThe article says as much but I think this is fantastic anyways.
- cchance 3y agoThat's because theres only a handful of satellites covering the entire area currently, they've already said voice and data will come but that the current cellular satellite network is just a couple satellites providing the coverage.
- ianburrell 3y agoThe main reason it will never be competitive is that the signal from a small device to satellite will always be weak. The Starlink V2 satellites have a big antenna to even work. The cells for Direct-to-Cell are hundreds of miles in diameter which means the modest (10 Mbps) bandwidth is spread over thousands of people. There is enough bandwidth for voice and very limited data, but they would need to get it working first.
- yareal 3y agoThe degree to which SpaceX/Elon musk's humor is ripped from 2012 and has made zero attempt to stay current tells a story. I'm not sure what that story is, maybe it's that millennials are hitting that age where they are culturally calcifying? But even as a 40 year old, I know doge memes are ancient.
- NikkiA 3y agoMusk was born in 1971, as much as I hate to admit it, he's Gen-X not a millenial.
- justinclift 3y agoWonder how long it'll be until we find out they're being used for warrant-less wiretapping (or equivalent thing) of people's comms outside the US?
- rightbyte 3y agoI am more worried about position tracking of me by the US gov. or spyware companies in general. Does my phone connect to roaming towers when there is normal towers in range? Is there any way to blacklist the satellites?
- diroussel 3y agoIf you turn off the cell radio on your phone then it won’t emit cell phone signals. Apart from that you must send a signal to be able to receive calls and data packets. And that signal encodes your location.
- rightbyte 3y agoSure, but does my phone transmitt my number (or some id/fingerprint) to Elon Musk when he flies over me? I understand that the local towers need my number to be able to call me.
- dzhiurgis 3y agoSIGINT sats been collecting all sort of signals for decades. Wifi/cell mac addresses too.
- justinclift 3y agoYeah, this is the commoditisation of the technology, so it becomes more widely available. Wonder how well it'll be received when China starts it's own Starlink competitor doing this too?
- Grimblewald 3y agoor that starlink's primary purpose is satellite imagery, with the massive amount of data it constantly streams back being covered up by the 'its civilian internet' front.
- Kon-Peki 3y agoThe latency is so bad that the memes are 3 years old by the time you read them.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoElon Musk really delivers at the end of the day. As a person he might be incorrigible but nobody else pushes the boundaries like him. Like I remember satellite internet and satellite phones for so long and they remained so shitty till Elon Musk came across the scene.
- justinclift 3y agoFull self driving for Tesla seems like a miss though. :/
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoThat is so obviously a lie, I am surprised people actually believed him. Maybe one day, but not today.