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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

#71

Post by dzhiurgis »

notatoad wrote: post #60
bonestamp2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>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. Apple only lets you communicate with an emergency dispatch service. the T-Mobile/starlink service appears to allow sending and receiving texts to any number.

Slight downside, but in many places you can’t text 911 or local equivalent

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#72

Post by BuildTheRobots »

qup wrote: post #57
nwatson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Almost any phone will let you make an emergency call without so much as a PIN to unlock it. No active service required.

It should even work if there isn't a SIM card in the phone, though I've only personally tested it on 2G and 3G.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#73

Post by fullspectrumdev »

connicpu wrote: post #31
14 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it would be a fantastic achievement. I was saying in another comment what is your he movie industry going to do when there is no such thing as no service, a common theme used in almost every scary movie?

Lead roof shingles?

Not even joking, a place I was renting had dead spots due to this.

I spent ages working out why the “older” part of the house had no cell coverage…

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#74

Post by fullspectrumdev »

nwatson wrote: post #44
oskarkk wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You just described a couple months of my life - my phone and card went missing, a lot of services were tied to a Revolut account on the phone - and my 2FA/Password Manager/Card became totally inaccessible so I lost access entirely to huge chunks of my life (:

It’s amazing how fragile stuff is. Now I’m super autistic about paper backups of everything, having ways back in, etc

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#75

Post by pkos98 »

Off topic: How does Starlink deploy updates to satellites? I would think the constraints are very different to standard deployments:

* Satellites are pets, not cattle * Increased latency * Firmware upgrades potentially resulting in unresponsiveness etc...

I guess first of all there is quite sophisticated testing on local satellites as well as simulators?

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#76

Post by Blahah »

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…

Antarctica and international waters already have sat phone coverage. Don't think it'll save any lives in those places. Remote regions of populous countries with a long tail of sparse rural infrastructure maybe. Brazil, India, China.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#77

Post by tlrobinson »

pkos98 wrote: post #75

Off topic: How does Starlink deploy updates to satellites? I would think the constraints are very different to standard deployments: * Satellites are pets, not cattle * Increased latency * Firmware upgrades potentially resulting in unresponsiveness etc... I guess first of all there is quite sophisticated testing on local satellites as well as simulators?

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2023/all2023/72/

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#78

Post by dave78 »

Blahah wrote: post #76
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…

Antarctica and international waters already have sat phone coverage. Don't think it'll save any lives in those places. Remote regions of populous countries with a long tail of sparse rural infrastructure maybe. Brazil, India, China.

There are huge portions of the USA that have no cell coverage. Often the kinds of places that people go to hike and explore - and also places that people sometimes get injured. I'm sure that's true in many other countries as well. I know people who volunteer for search & rescue teams, and they all universally believe that this kind of thing definitely will save lives.

The smart thing to do if you were going somewhere remote would be to have a sat phone. But, 1) they cost money, 2) we know there's a lot of people that don't think ahead or think that bad things will happen to them and 3) a lot of people are simply ignorant about the lack of cell coverage in these places, and just assume they'll be able to call for help if they need it. By the time they figure out that they were wrong about the coverage, they're too committed to turn around and go back.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#79

Post by fragmede »

pkos98 wrote: post #75

Off topic: How does Starlink deploy updates to satellites? I would think the constraints are very different to standard deployments: * Satellites are pets, not cattle * Increased latency * Firmware upgrades potentially resulting in unresponsiveness etc... I guess first of all there is quite sophisticated testing on local satellites as well as simulators?

With over 5,500 satellites in LEO, I have a hard time seeing Starlink satellites as pets and not cattle.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#80

Post by dzhiurgis »

miki123211 wrote: post #48

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 mi…

Is there chatgpt clones over sms yet?
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