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Starlink Direct to Cell

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Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#101

Post by vl »

kortilla wrote: post #86
rootusrootus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why switch carriers for that, you can get the same functionality built-in to iPhones and it's not dependent on carrier.

iPhone sos does not allow you to just text random stuff to arbitrary people. It’s emergency only and a preselected “family group”

If you have zero signal, modern iPhone allows you to connect to satellite and text using iMessage. I just used it this week multiple times during massive Pacific Northwest blackout.

Works surprisingly well. You have to be outside and hold iPhone in the specifics position pointed at satellite, it tells you where to turn iPhone to to get signal.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#102

Post by ubj »

christophilus wrote: post #24
Retric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not going to work inside buildings, and they would need to charge you a fairly astronomical fee per minute. However, a Starlink mini dish can let you cheaply make calls from basically anywhere with some minor setup.

> astronomical fee

Yep, definitely beyond sky-high prices :)

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#103

Post by kortilla »

vl wrote: post #101
kortilla wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhone sos does not allow you to just text random stuff to arbitrary people. It’s emergency only and a preselected “family group”

If you have zero signal, modern iPhone allows you to connect to satellite and text using iMessage. I just used it this week multiple times during massive Pacific Northwest blackout. Works surprisingly well. You have to be outside and hold iPhone in the specifics position pointed at satellite, it tells you where to turn iPhone to to get signal.

Did they get rid of the limitation of having to setup a special family group in advance?

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#104

Post by philipwhiuk »

ignoramous wrote: post #30
charliebwrites wrote: post #6

I wish I could pay Starlink directly and have global satellite based LTE instead of having to go through a specific carrier and be limited by other carriers’ reciprocity to specific countries and bands One space based cell plan for the whole world

> One space based cell plan for the whole world The baseband on handheld devices do not have that much power to transmit and receive from Starlink directly; and hence the partnership with MNOs. With 5G (after Google & Meta got involved, the designs took on a Cloud/Internet-heavy focus), Starlink very well might have "slices" carved out exclusive for its own use world over. See also: Cloudflare's Zero-Trust SIM (2022)…

> The baseband on handheld devices do not have that much power to transmit and receive from Starlink directly

It turns out they do.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#105

Post by growt »

Gare wrote: post #45
rafram wrote: post #37

I feel so, so mixed about this. It’s going to be unambiguously good for wilderness rescue and disaster response. But I like camping and hiking in remote areas in order to remove myself from the world. And I think the lack of connectivity discourages unprepared people from taking on more than they can handle in the wilderness. If the wilderness becomes fully connected, will it spoil that feeling? Will it lead to the l…

There are virtually no unconnected places in most of Europe yet wilderness is still dangerous. It is good that rescue services can help you if accident happens (and it can happen even to the adequatly prepared).

„There are no unconnected places in most of Europe“ Then you haven’t traveled with the German railway yet!

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#106

Post by rlt »

ggernov wrote: post #58
charliebwrites wrote: post #6

I wish I could pay Starlink directly and have global satellite based LTE instead of having to go through a specific carrier and be limited by other carriers’ reciprocity to specific countries and bands One space based cell plan for the whole world

I was curious about this! I wish this was a perk of owning / purchasing a Tesla or a more expensive option of Starlink terminal.

It’s kind of crazy Tesla hasn’t partnered with SpaceX to provide Starlink as an option.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#107

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

Retric wrote: post #61
inglor_cz wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for somebody whose job is outside the existing networks, such as sailors.

Sailors can make calls using the ships Wi-Fi via full sized Starlink dishes, they need coverage on land. But even ignoring that the contention is low in the middle of the ocean and satellites have hardware either way, driving down the market rate for calls at sea.

The setup cost for Starlink on a boat is still massively higher than on land.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#108

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

paxys wrote: post #93
charliebwrites wrote: post #6

I wish I could pay Starlink directly and have global satellite based LTE instead of having to go through a specific carrier and be limited by other carriers’ reciprocity to specific countries and bands One space based cell plan for the whole world

Are you planning to be in direct line of sight to a Starlink satellite 24x7?

Starlink's certainly planning on that, more or less.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#109

Post by maxrmk »

lupusreal wrote: post #31
reizorc wrote: post #11

Does this mean they can track the location of specific IMEIs from orbit?

HawkEye 360 has been doing this for a few years.

This is really interesting. Based on their wikipedia I can see they collect a lot of RF traffic - are IMEIs identifiable with the raw data captured that way? I'm surprised they are not encrypted. I say this as someone who knows nothing about the space.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#110

Post by jrflowers »

rafram wrote: post #77
jrflowers wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been making TikTok videos in the wilderness this entire time, they just wait until they get service to upload them.

Sure, and people were making YouTube videos in the wilderness before that, but the accessibility that came with TikTok and Instagram created a phenomenon increased demand tenfold at many parks. That’s why you have to win a lottery to hike Angels Landing in Zion now. Now we get wilderness livestreams! What will that do?

> Now we get wilderness livestreams! What will that do?

My guess is there will be some more wilderness livestreams streams, largely made by the people that are already going out to these places to produce content.

Are you particularly worried about a group of people that so far had no interest at all in taking pictures or videos in the wilderness but will now show up in droves to make competing bits of strictly-live content? Who are these users??

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