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Starlink is nice but does the US not possess an air platform that can loiter while providing mobile phone service? Seems like a useful thing to have for civil d
by jeffbee 2y ago
Starlink is nice but does the US not possess an air platform that can loiter while providing mobile phone service? Seems like a useful thing to have for civil defense. Wasn't Project Loon supposedly capable of covering a state-sized area with 4G coverage?
- inemesitaffia 2y agoGoogle replaced loon with starlink and point to point laser tech
- jeffbee 2y agoI'm asking why the US doesn't own a blimp with a base station taped to the bottom.
- shrubble 2y agoThat would require the government to be innovative.
- mensetmanusman 2y agoHurricanes would blow it away
- toast0 2y agoWell, the US doesn't run any phone companies... a bettee question is why don't the telephone companies own or borrow a dirigible to provide emergency services. Hazards of dirigibles in huricane season might be part of it, of course.
- kortilla 2y agoWhat weird phrasing. Loon just shutdown on its own and did not participate in any of the sat laser development for Starlink.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoGoogle invested in SpaceX and exited loon at around the same time. Also at least one of Greg Wylers people at Google working on OneWeb left for Starlink
- inemesitaffia 2y agoThe laser tech is a different thing within GoogleX
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoWe know with certainty that major disasters happen like clockwork every year, but that would decrease the amount we can pay our carriers CEOs and it's not like there's any profit potential from this, carriers don't have SLAs where people impacted by outages are owed anything. More practically for civil defense, national guard will have their own radios, and the amateur radio guys all said they've been prepping for this role? Have they succeeded in that goal?