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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

#141

Post by eternityforest »

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…

Emergency communications are a big deal, because they let you go places you couldn't go before without being utterly afraid.

I wonder if this will change people's behavior at all.

Like, I've always wondered how LEDs affected peoples perception of nature, now that there's no longer any "Really dark scary night where you need to manage an actual fire" times. 20 years ago people still lit candles a lot of the time, if there was a blackout!

Now we can pretty much trust that for $30 we can make an insane amount of light for hours, with pocket sized devices.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#142

Post by tjohns »

eternityforest wrote: post #136
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_...

PLBs are not cheap, used ones cost at least $100, 100x more than most people are willing to spend on safety (How many people have no emergency water at home?). I don't understand how anyone could regularly go hiking out of cell range without one though. Some commenters seem to actively like being that disconnected I suppose.

People went hiking for centuries before satellite messengers were a thing.

The fact is, calling for help via satellite while in the backcountry is often a 12-24 response time. Sending another person in your party back to civilization to call for help is also a viable option. Anything more time sensitive than that and outside help is unlikely to arrive in time.

The most important thing is to travel in a group, and make sure somebody in your group knows first aid and basic survival skills. I highly recommend taking a Wilderness First Aid course.

(I carry a PLB myself, but I would not consider lack of one a reason to avoid doing outdoor activities.)

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#143

Post by yreg »

Reason077 wrote: post #96
modeless wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that Apple's capability is similar. The feature only allows texting emergency services, requires holding the phone in a specific orientation to send or receive, is separate from your carrier service (only two years are free with purchase), and is exceedingly slow. SpaceX's service will allow texting and receiving texts from anyone using your carrier number, plans to support third party messaging apps such…

… and the SpaceX service works with any ordinary modern phone. Not just the latest iPhone with special hardware.

Well it requires a 5G phone. And Apple's service is not just the latest iPhones.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#144

Post by modeless »

eternityforest wrote: post #135
lxgr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be great, but in addition to network-side changes it would definitely require changes to existing baseband firmware as well – i.e. it's not happening for existing phones.

Is the baseband firmware not updatable?

Manufacturers have no incentive to update it with new features. Their incentive is to require you to buy a new phone to get those features even if the old hardware could theoretically support it.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#145

Post by Difwif »

eternityforest wrote: post #141
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…

Emergency communications are a big deal, because they let you go places you couldn't go before without being utterly afraid. I wonder if this will change people's behavior at all. Like, I've always wondered how LEDs affected peoples perception of nature, now that there's no longer any "Really dark scary night where you need to manage an actual fire" times. 20 years ago people still lit candles a lot of the time, if t…

The funny thing is that it's just a perception change. You'll be able to message emergency services 200 miles from civilization that you need help and they still won't get to you in time.

Everyone makes a big deal about emergency services with this, and I'm sure it will save some lives, but I wonder if it will actually have a significant impact. Surely we're just shifting the weakest link to emergency service response time.

Personally, the sooner you realize no one is always going to be there to save you, and you need to take care of yourself, travel gets much more fun. You're also probably safer by actually planning ahead with proper risk mitigation.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#146

Post by panick21_ »

umeshunni wrote: post #130
nektro wrote: post #64

space should be a government-only thing

It has been for the last 75 years, and there has been pretty much no progress for the last 50.

Except of course it has not been a government only thing for 75 years. What are you even talking about?

> The world's first commercial communications satellite, called Intelsat I and nicknamed "Early Bird", was launched into geosynchronous orbit on April 6, 1965.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#147

Post by coolbreezetft24 »

carabiner wrote: post #127
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

China is as free as the US. You can leave the country and emigrate to the US, and that's why there are so many Chinese everywhere. No, it's not Orwellian any more and people do not carry a "little red book" with them. Chinese people can choose their jobs, start a company, pursue hobbies like rock climbing and guitar and gardening and live basically like most westerners.

No one in China is allowed to criticize their leader lol

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#148

Post by panick21_ »

nektro wrote: post #122
lom wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Doesn’t this prove that it’s beneficial to have private companies in space too.

no. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/us/politics/elon-musk-whi... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk...

Pretty hilarious that your 'argument' is a opinion piece and the other is literally just an article that the newspaper itself has corrected because its false.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#149

Post by xattt »

Do any of the 4G/5G protocols accommodate satellite-based comms with some sort of special transmit mode from the phone side?

It blows my mind that any of this is possible, because I was a futurist as a kid, but completely dismissed off-the-shelf cell-to-sat as sci-fi only.

Re: Starlink Successfully Tests Space Direct to Cell Mobile Service

#150

Post by notatoad »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #71
notatoad wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

not so much a downside or an upside, just a totally different thing.
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