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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

#101

Post by lxgr »

jessriedel wrote: post #99
lxgr wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's still the matter of spectrum: Unlike existing satphone services, Starlink doesn't have any of the precious global L-band or C-band spectrum required to make it available globally. That's why they're partnering with T-Mobile in the US and others elsewhere: Those operators can just lend Starlink some of their domestic spectrum. That's going to be much harder at sea, and there will always be a long tail of count…

Sees like there should be plenty of bandwidth at many frequencies available over international waters. It's regulated by the ITU, but it's much less valuable so there should be plenty to rent/buy, no?

That’s actually a good point: I don’t know how that spectrum is assigned! I thought ITU only coordinates internationally, but since it’s literally international waters, maybe that is enough?

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#102

Post by tuatoru »

lxgr wrote: post #98
tuatoru wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The smart thing to do if you were going somewhere remote would be to have a Personal locator beacon, PLB, on land; or an EPIRB, emergency position indicating radio beacon, on ocean. Satphones and cell phones are luxuries but these are vital. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_position-indicating_...

These are more expensive than many current satellite messengers (including subscription fees for a few years!) and importantly don’t give you any feedback on whether your call has gone through (except for the newest ones using Galileo’s return channel) or way to communicate with the SAR team and specify the nature of your emergency.

Where I live PLBs have a lower sticker price than the InReach, only require a one-time payment for life, and they have a ten-year battery life. I don't know about EPIRBs or ELTs.

You don't need feedback: Search and Rescue WILL send out a team that makes physical contact with you, even if you only turn the thing on for a couple of minutes. Seen this in action here in NZ. They are trained in tracking, too, so you can't hide.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#103

Post by lxgr »

eminence32 wrote: post #23

I wonder how the starlink sats pick out the signal from a low-power terrestrial cell phone -- extraordinarily sensitive antennas and filters and amplifiers? extraordinarily sophisticated signal processing? This feels a bit like magic (The fact that we can still talk to the Voyager probes also feels a bit like magic to me, too)

It’s a frequency (range) dedicated exclusively to satellite usage, at least in the respective operating region.

In the US, that’ll be presumably some of T-Mobile’s spectrum.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#104

Post by jessriedel »

pkos98 wrote: post #82
fragmede wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

true if you only look at the amount of satellites, but if you look at the cost: one of them costs several millions if you consider production and "delivery" cost and they're not easy to replace.

They are pretty easy to replace. There are multiple spares in each orbital plane, and new satellites are constantly being launched. Each satellite only has a 5 year lifespan, and no individual satellite is critical.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#105

Post by paxys »

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…

They have partnered with T-Mobile, and T-Mobile already has these deals in place. This is how TMo subscribers get global data coverage as part of their plan.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#106

Post by lxgr »

tra3 wrote: post #9
samstave wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It specifically was unspecified. [This Comment Intentionally Left Blank]

Why would that be? > with regular unmodified Smartphones Why are they being so cagey?

I’m almost certain it won’t be actually unmodified smartphones. At least some baseband and/or anpplic layer adaptation seems necessary in order to not waste all bandwidth on signaling and overhead.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#107

Post by WhereIsTheTruth »

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

> Especially if those countries are currently suffering from economic depression like China

You seem to ask a question to push a narrative rather than by curiosity

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/imf-upgrades-chinas-2023...

~5% growth when the west is contracting, specially Germany and the US is quite the feat, what's happening in the Red Sea didn't even hurt that forecast

Have you seen the forecast for most EU countries? it's quite dark in comparison

And have you read about EU farmers protesting? Dictators must be wearing blue, and censorship may rule, perhaps not just red ;)

In the meantime:

https://consumer.huawei.com/za/community/details/Huawei-Mate...

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/China-s-own-GPS-Bei...

Economic depression? has any of the European countries attempted this?

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#108

Post by paxys »

14 wrote: post #24
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 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…

Filmmakers still haven't come to terms with the fact that everyone has a cellphone in their pocket now and most plot confusion that normally drags on for 2 hours can be resolved in under 30 seconds.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#109

Post by sebzim4500 »

pkos98 wrote: post #82
fragmede wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

true if you only look at the amount of satellites, but if you look at the cost: one of them costs several millions if you consider production and "delivery" cost and they're not easy to replace.

There is no public number for satellite cost, but I would guess a starlink v2 satellites costs about a million including delivery. I've heard the marginal cost for the launch itself is under $20M now, and the satellites are supposedly much cheaper than they used to be.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#110

Post by rany_ »

drak0n1c wrote: post #59
alterego2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 modicu…

Linguistic and cultural barriers are far stronger than informational barriers. Which may be an upside considering how other potentially self-destructive fads and attitudes spread so rapidly with the internet. We've seen the beginnings of that with the Arab Spring, and various culture wars across English-speaking western countries. If the world were even more homogenous the whiplash from such polarizing movements woul…

Also I think the only reason why the BBC was banned in the first place is their BBC in Russian service. See https://www.bbc.com/russian
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