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Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#31

Post by jojobas »

mastazi wrote: post #28
jojobas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not exactly "satellite network", it's piggy-backing on an existing SAR reception infrastructure that used to require somewhat expensive dedicated devices. Not sure it's a good idea, I'd expect a wave of SAR requests for not real emergencies.

Aren't SARs generally mounted on satellites? E.g. https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Techn...

It's a low bandwidth, high latency facility nowhere near what you'd typically think about when you think of a network.

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#32

Post by nier »

williamscales wrote: post #23
jojobas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not exactly "satellite network", it's piggy-backing on an existing SAR reception infrastructure that used to require somewhat expensive dedicated devices. Not sure it's a good idea, I'd expect a wave of SAR requests for not real emergencies.

The devices aren’t even particularly expensive any more, about $200 iirc. A PLB usually also has a radio transmitter on it that allows rescuers to direction-find your location.

PLB stands for personal locator beacon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_locator_beacon

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#33

Post by dmitrygr »

rolenthedeep wrote: post #30

Huh, I wonder how they manage to pick up the tiny amount of RF energy a normal phone can output from that far away, and through the noise of literally millions of other phones in the satellite's field of view. Gotta be some real weird RF voodoo happening in there.

Well, so far they only promised to. So, probably it’ll be done the same way that Teslas could self drive, across the county, unassisted in 2017

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#34

Post by gwillen »

version_five wrote: post #27

This will hopefully give Canadians real options for mobile phone plans. It will be "illegal" because our telecom monopoly (oligopoly) writes the laws, but presumably with a US address it will be possible, like it was with satellite dishes, to get a proper phone on a network that doesn't gouge you. I'll be curious what the monopoly does to try and fight it.

The satellites will surely have a certain amount of beam steering capability. (You need beamforming for this to work at all, I think.) If you're too far from the border, you may not be able to trick the system into believing you're in the US. (A lot depends on the implementation ... and what governments demand in terms of compliance.)

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#35

Post by daydream »

dmitrygr wrote: post #33
rolenthedeep wrote: post #30

Huh, I wonder how they manage to pick up the tiny amount of RF energy a normal phone can output from that far away, and through the noise of literally millions of other phones in the satellite's field of view. Gotta be some real weird RF voodoo happening in there.

Well, so far they only promised to. So, probably it’ll be done the same way that Teslas could self drive, across the county, unassisted in 2017

> Well, so far they only promised to.

Apple’s solution works today. Consumers are using it.

This is mentioned in the article.

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#36

Post by mlindner »

bagels wrote: post #24
jrexilius wrote: post #13

This sounds to me like a single, global, commercial IMSI catcher that can track international movement of cell phones.. I guess the question is how good their triangulation will be, but I imagine the back-end data market for this will be fairly lucrative for them. And they don't really need any countries permission to _listen_ from space... .. .

I find it hard to believe that there aren't already intelligence satellites up there listening to as much RF as possible everywhere all the time.

I mean it's been a common facet of movies from the 80s/90s of satellites intercepting cell phone communications directly.

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#37

Post by mlindner »

rootusrootus wrote: post #10

So there's Bluewalker 3 which uses a big antenna to achieve communications with unmodified cell phones, and then Elon claiming that regular Starlink satellites will be able to do the same thing without that ginormous antenna. How does that work? Both are at roughly similar altitudes, BW3 just slightly higher.

There's a tradeoff between satellite size and satellite number and also bandwidth available. Both claims are likely equally true without any contradiction.

Also for the record, it's been previously mentioned that Starlink would equip an expandable 25 square meter antenna for this service. [1]

[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/forget-5g-wireless-s...

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#38

Post by [deleted] »

daydream wrote: post #35
dmitrygr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, so far they only promised to. So, probably it’ll be done the same way that Teslas could self drive, across the county, unassisted in 2017

> Well, so far they only promised to. Apple’s solution works today. Consumers are using it. This is mentioned in the article.

[deleted]

Re: Existing smartphones will connect with new satellite constellations in 2023

#40

Post by pests »

daydream wrote: post #35
dmitrygr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, so far they only promised to. So, probably it’ll be done the same way that Teslas could self drive, across the county, unassisted in 2017

> Well, so far they only promised to. Apple’s solution works today. Consumers are using it. This is mentioned in the article.

Apple's solution is making use of special features in the radio package. The post states unmodified phones.
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