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Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

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Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#41

Post by alterego2 »

berserk1010 wrote: post #11

I wonder if this service will facilitate collapse of censorship in dictatorship countries like China and Russia. Especially if those countries are currently suffering from economic depression like China and Russia, and its citizens are waking up to its harsh realities and are keen to get unfiltered information

It will not.

Don't know about China, but Russian citizens already have almost unfiltered access to information. The only major western media outlet currently blocked in Russia is BBC. Anyone can read pretty much anything else - Reuters, Newsweek, CNN, whatever - right from their phones.

Access to information is not the problem (at least for now). It is trivial to get access to uncensored news for anyone with a modicum of desire to do so.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#42

Post by bonestamp2 »

modeless wrote: post #5

I don't know if this has been announced before: "Operators in our network have access to reciprocal global access that allows their users to access the service when they travel to one of our partner countries." [1] It sounds like once SpaceX has partnered with at least one carrier in most countries then you'll be able to travel to almost any point on the surface of the Earth and still have baseline emergency cell tex…

> I don't know if this has been announced before...

When they announced the original deal with T-Mobile, they said that T-Mobile would handle the (spectrum) license for the US and they're looking for a partner in other countries with the appropriate spectrum licensing. US T-Mobile customers would have access to this SpaceX service in any country where there is a partner with the spectrum license.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-cove...

If you have an iPhone 14 or above, Apple offers similar capabilities to all iPhone users in about a dozen countries (so far) regardless of which mobile network you subscribe to at home.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213426

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#43

Post by oskarkk »

wmf wrote: post #22
berserk1010 wrote: post #11

I wonder if this service will facilitate collapse of censorship in dictatorship countries like China and Russia. Especially if those countries are currently suffering from economic depression like China and Russia, and its citizens are waking up to its harsh realities and are keen to get unfiltered information

Uncensored Starlink won't be turned on in China because that would upset the government and then the government would retaliate against Tesla.

Musk being reliant on his business in China is one thing, but I also think that the US government may not want to upset China by having an American company serving people in China without approval of the Chinese government? Starlink works (or worked?) in Iran, but International Telecommunication Union ordered Starlink to stop it[0]. I'm not sure if it changed anything because US government doesn't mind it.

[0] https://amwaj.media/media-monitor/will-starlink-comply-with-...

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#44

Post by nwatson »

oskarkk wrote: post #30
14 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking the other day what is Hollywood going to do in the future with people lost movies that simply won’t be very reasonable for in most movies. For example I saw one the other day and they crashed a plane but people survived and they were trying to hold their phones up but couldn’t get a signal. Of course not or there would be no plot to the show they would just be rescued right away. With this new tec…

Phone can run out of battery and it can be easily destroyed or lost.

Your credit card expired and you didn't pay your last month of service and to update your credit card details you need access to your email account to confirm ID you but your phone is a new replacement phone and you don't have your 2FA codes for your email account.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#45

Post by MrEd »

concordDance wrote: post #28
gambiting wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the whole dream of "free internet will bring freedom and democracy to the whole world" died a decade ago if not earlier. All of those states had completely free and unrestricted access to the internet not that far back and it didn't really lead to anything groundbreaking - introducing satellite telephony to the common market is not going to do it. And you can bet that if the service is offered in China/Ru…

Language really matters, it's a great homogenizing force. Unfortunately, the Chinese and Russians mostly don't speak English and thus can't/don't interact with pro-democracy people.

As if you would know what the percentage of English-language proficiency is . Ever had friends in RU and CN?

Btw, not everyone on Earth seems Western faux democracy as a suitable / wanted direction to move to.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#46

Post by bonestamp2 »

samstave wrote: post #2

> On Monday, January 8, the Starlink team successfully sent and received our first text messages using T-Mobile network spectrum through one of our new Direct to Cell satellites launched six days prior. Connecting cell phones to satellites has several major challenges to overcome. FOR decades I have wanted a modern Pager - an SMS ONLY device,. Before Android, there were a few devices that were headed there, but the h…

There are a bunch of people who take blackberry keyboards and making LoRa texting devices. One example:

https://www.hackster.io/news/this-lora-messenger-is-perfect-...

It would be cool if they extended this to use satellites where LoRa is not available.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#47

Post by serf »

oDot wrote: post #38
14 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking the other day what is Hollywood going to do in the future with people lost movies that simply won’t be very reasonable for in most movies. For example I saw one the other day and they crashed a plane but people survived and they were trying to hold their phones up but couldn’t get a signal. Of course not or there would be no plot to the show they would just be rescued right away. With this new tec…

I am a filmmaker, and interestingly it happened before already. One example is that since cellphones became widespread, it's not very realistic for a guy to run after a girl in the third act of a rom com -- a call is now enough This isn't bad -- it drives storytelling innovation

>This isn't bad -- it drives storytelling innovation

to me it feels like it just drives filmmakers to make more period pieces.

'the wedding singer' comes to mind.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#48

Post by miki123211 »

I think the advent of Chat GPT makes this announcement that much more significant.

Until recently, always-available, extremely-low-bandwidth, text-only communication was interesting, but not that interesting. You could use it in emergency situations or to talk to friends, depending on how low-bandwidth we're talking about, but that's about it. You couldn't use it for internet browsing or to look up information you might need on the go, you basically needed to text a friend to do it for you.

If the other side of that communication has access to an LLM with internet browsing capabilities, the situation changes dramatically. If there's something you need to know on the go, you can just ask Chat GPT to do the searching for you and respond like it was writing a Telegram (in the most concise way possible).

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#49

Post by oskarkk »

kgwxd wrote: post #14
berserk1010 wrote: post #11

I wonder if this service will facilitate collapse of censorship in dictatorship countries like China and Russia. Especially if those countries are currently suffering from economic depression like China and Russia, and its citizens are waking up to its harsh realities and are keen to get unfiltered information

Not if Musk has anything to say about it.

Starlink works in Iran and is crucial to the Ukrainian army, but as other commenter pointed out, Musk has business in China, so China would be off the table.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#50

Post by bdcravens »

berserk1010 wrote: post #11

I wonder if this service will facilitate collapse of censorship in dictatorship countries like China and Russia. Especially if those countries are currently suffering from economic depression like China and Russia, and its citizens are waking up to its harsh realities and are keen to get unfiltered information

This assumes those citizens have an avenue to signing up and paying for Starlink's mobile offering, and whether Elon will cooperate with requests from those nations. I can't imagine he'd put his ability to sell his cars at risk.
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