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SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

wsj.com

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Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#191

Post by jorvi »

joshe wrote: post #128

This 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…

> 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.

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#192

Post by CharlesW »

ericabiz wrote: post #182
CharlesW wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course, Apple’s solution will likely only work with iMessage. What makes you think that? (Messages doesn’t need to be on your carrier’s network to send/receive MMS/SMS messages.)

I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective. This is Apple we are talking about. They wouldn’t make this play without some form of vendor lock-in. They will probably choose to lock in based on hardware (“must have iPhone 14 for this capability!”) — but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them lock in on the software side as well. If I were Tim Cook, I might play…

> I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective.

I understand, but an iMessages¹-only Messages² is a non-starter at Apple because it causes complexity and customer confusion, two things that Apple is stellar³ at minimizing.

¹protocol ²app ³overall, always exceptions

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#193

Post by bottlepalm »

carlivar wrote: post #125
fragmede wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-driving cars have proven harder than expected, but given the rest of Musk's tale, I wouldn't bet against him. SpaceX is already launching satellites, and Starlink is already providing service. T-mobile owns the frequencies for it, it's "just" a matter of building the satellites and putting them into space. If the claim were more outlandish, it would be harder to buy, but the technology is eminently doable.

No, self driving cars are as hard as expected.

Even in its current state with FSD beta my car drives itself 95% of the time.

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#194

Post by mwint »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #173
kibibyte wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS is a thing, so I can imagine that a phone would be able to receive satellite signals pretty easily. But for transmission, I can't imagine this working without having your phone put a ton of power into sending a powerful enough signal, perhaps more so than how much power you need to passively receive GPS signals in the absence of traditional cell towers?

It sounds like the data rate is incredibly low. That allows for a lot of signal margin. GPS receivers are sensitive to something like -165dBm. It's probably harder for the satellite to hear from the phone. Especially at a lower frequency like 700Mhz, a phone's tiny antenna is going to be a rather inefficient transmitter. Maybe 5g technology helps by allowing the phone to do some rudimentary beam forming using multipl…

(How) Does beamforming work in a moving device?

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#195

Post by ericabiz »

CharlesW wrote: post #192
ericabiz wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective. This is Apple we are talking about. They wouldn’t make this play without some form of vendor lock-in. They will probably choose to lock in based on hardware (“must have iPhone 14 for this capability!”) — but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them lock in on the software side as well. If I were Tim Cook, I might play…

> I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective. I understand, but an iMessages¹-only Messages² is a non-starter at Apple because it causes complexity and customer confusion, two things that Apple is stellar³ at minimizing. ¹protocol ²app ³overall, always exceptions

Oh, right. I agree with you on that front. I see it working this way:

If you are standing on top of a mountain, right now you can’t send anything.

With Apple’s upcoming announcement, you’ll be able to send an iMessage.

If you try to send a SMS, it just won’t go through—-same as it would today.

I hope Apple allows it for all messages, personally. But I could definitely see them restricting it, especially at the beginning.

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#196

Post by bottlepalm »

rvz wrote: post #177
ALittleLight wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you damage your own credibility more than Musk's by saying things like this. He's delivered on electric cars and reusable rockets. It's fair to say promises more than he delivers, but he delivers an awful lot.

> I think you damage your own credibility more than Musk's by saying things like this. Why are you making it about this commenter? They are not wrong. Unless you can answer this next question: > He's delivered on electric cars and reusable rockets. It's fair to say promises more than he delivers, but he delivers an awful lot. So where are the 1 million robo-taxis driving around at Level 5 FSD ready for release in 202…

I'm pretty happy with FSD beta, drives itself 95% of the time and I can easily see them figuring out the other 5%. People like you said landing rockets wasn't possible either. Where are they now?

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#198

Post by mwint »

mlindner wrote: post #138
bjacobt wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most 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.

This assumes that other vendors can be cost competitive, which, at least to me, seems quite unlikely.

Right, this is like trying to compete in building cell towers against the only company that knows how to build tall things at all.

Cell carriers aren’t going to learn to build rockets, and no one can launch at SpaceX costs (and in the US, no one else can launch period)

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#199

Post by bottlepalm »

fivestarman wrote: post #168
ALittleLight wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you damage your own credibility more than Musk's by saying things like this. He's delivered on electric cars and reusable rockets. It's fair to say promises more than he delivers, but he delivers an awful lot.

Quoted post unavailable.

He's actually a pretty incredible engineer who was been making important engineering decisions daily for 20 years. Decisions that make or break products and companies.

Re: SpaceX, T-Mobile to connect satellites to cellphones in remote areas

#200

Post by mlindner »

jacquesm wrote: post #151
mplewis wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Most of us here would dream of being that effective. He's a jerk though, that's the part the world could do without and with him now firmly in the Trump camp we'll see what kind of long term misery will come from that. I can't stand it when immigrants into a country become champions for the anti-immigration party, it's the moral equivalent of kicking the door shut behind you.

> with him now firmly in the Trump camp we'll see what kind of long term misery will come from that.

[citation needed]. I guess you missed the news of Trump completely lambasting Elon? Trump is no friend of Elon. Nor is Elon a friend of Trump. Elon is a centrist, not far right.

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