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Starlink Direct to Cell

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Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#241

Post by skissane »

sangnoir wrote: post #229
skissane wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The board at Tesla is basically Elon’s buddies. AFAIK, Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chair, had no particular association with Musk prior to joining Tesla’s board. She is an Australian business executive with a history of working in senior finance roles in Australian and US firms. She was recruited on to Tesla’s board by another (now former) Tesla director, Brad Buss, who to my knowledge has never been that closely associ…

Wasn't there a shareholder suite that alleged the directors aren't independent because of the above-standard Tesla options they receive? Robyn Denholm excecised and sold $35M worth of TSLA in the past month.

> Wasn't there a shareholder suite that alleged the directors aren't independent because of the above-standard Tesla options they receive?

Has a court accepted that argument? I mean, you can come up with all sorts of grounds to claim an independent director isn’t really independent, but unless a court with jurisdiction accepts the argument, it doesn’t really count for anything.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#242

Post by chasd00 »

cprayingmantis wrote: post #192

If anyone from Starlink or SpaceX is reading these comments here’s what you want to do: Sell your own branded trail cam with solar charging and LTE from orbit. You can charge $25-$40 a month for unlimited pictures sent from the cam. This would open up hunters, nature enthusiasts, and researchers to be able to place their hardware anywhere in the field without worrying about connectivity. Here in SWVA we have deep hol…

Off grid cabins could use this too.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#243

Post by threeseed »

fragmede wrote: post #237
threeseed wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly not sure why they would want to. The world is continually moving towards being centred around cities where it makes sense to simply rollout fibre. Especially with gigabit speeds being the new standard. And even in Australia they are starting to move remote areas onto fibre.

I think Starlink has caused rural fiber deployments to accelerate because a friend's property in rural Oregon just got fiber, but the challenge remains: after you get fiber to the corner of your 22 acre lot, how do you cover the rest of the 21 acres? With fiber and using wifi as your backhaul you have to get a chain a bunch of nodes to get Internet to each building/area you want wifi. Starlink (business) lets you jus…

There are long-range e.g. 20km WiFi transmitters/repeaters.

It's a solved problem.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#244

Post by throwaway2037 »

Retric wrote: post #141
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

250$/month gets you 50GB/month on the open ocean and unlimited on waterways, higher demand is cheaper per GB ex: 1TB for 1,000$/month. https://www.starlink.com/boats Calls are ~0.75 MB/minute allowing a 24/7 conversion for for a full month for 250$, or more realistically mostly sending other kinds of data and a sub cent per minute opportunity cost for using that data on calls. The actual hardware installation is rela…

Is the reason that Starlink charges so much more for boats is low competition? Or is there something obviously much more complex / expensive about beaming gigs of data from space over the ocean vs land? I don't write this post with any spite; I am genuinely curious.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#245

Post by morpheuskafka »

cj wrote: post #38

> ENGINEERED BY SPACEX It would be very interesting to see some kind of diagram depicting all of the corporate entities Musk is involved in and how each entity does business with one another. xAI just raised billions to help Tesla build out FSD (or at least that was part of the pitch). His empire is divided into so many corporate entities, but they all cross-pollinate and are clearly under his direct control for the…

＞ His empire is divided into so many corporate entities, but they all cross-pollinate and are clearly under his direct control for the most part.

It's not unusual for large companies to have a large web of corporate entities, but what's problematic is that they have different ownership rather than the same owners/owned by each other. (I started to say that one is public and others private, but it would be the same issue if two were public, as they would obviously not have the exact same set of owners.)

When xAI makes a deal with Tesla, if xAI is getting the better end of the stick, that is a self-dealing problem that the SEC can investigate on behalf of Tesla shareholders. The assets of Tesla belong proportionally to its owners, so Musk or another large owner can't make deals that give their private company an advantage at the expense of Tesla owners.

If Tesla gets too generous of a deal, that's something the non-Musk owners of xAI if any could raise an issue with, but when the public company is allegedly getting shortchanged, the SEC gets involved too. Moreover, even if you are trying to do it right, there is always the opportunity for someone to challenge you.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#247

Post by morpheuskafka »

briandear wrote: post #131
elAhmo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The board at Tesla is basically Elon’s buddies. There is no oversight or independence there, they do what he wants. If law was applied equality to billionaires as it does to regular people, he would be in jail for fraud.

If shareholders are happy, what business is it of yours? If they aren’t happy, they can sell the shares.

It's not enough to just do a poll and say that most shareholders are "happy." If there is even one owner, which there will be, who objects, you need to be able to show that decisions were in the best interest of the company. That doesn't mean said owner has to agree with them, but if there are deals that arguably favor outside companies then you will hear from either the SEC or that one shareholder.

The other comment saying "the law is above shareholder gain" is kind of missing the point thought--the law in question is specifically to protect the interest of shareholders.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#248

Post by throwaway2037 »

joecool1029 wrote: post #234
kortilla wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the primary reason they took this approach is that licensing for these frequencies is astronomical if you want to cover the entire US. That would bleed them dry as they build out the constellation and try to ramp up user count. Partnering with a national carrier handles the licensing aspect and if the tech pans out the economics could shift to allow them to buy national spectrum and offer direct service.

It's not acquiring the spectrum that's an issue right now. It's it not interfering with terrestrial networks. Euro carriers already pushing back against relaxing emissions restrictions for DTC specifically: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10930985930353/1

Help me: Is DTC "direct-to-consumer"? I tried to Google for it, but I didn't find anything obvious. Else, hat tip for this FCC find! What a great share on HN.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#249

Post by Spooky23 »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #244
Retric wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

250$/month gets you 50GB/month on the open ocean and unlimited on waterways, higher demand is cheaper per GB ex: 1TB for 1,000$/month. https://www.starlink.com/boats Calls are ~0.75 MB/minute allowing a 24/7 conversion for for a full month for 250$, or more realistically mostly sending other kinds of data and a sub cent per minute opportunity cost for using that data on calls. The actual hardware installation is rela…

Is the reason that Starlink charges so much more for boats is low competition? Or is there something obviously much more complex / expensive about beaming gigs of data from space over the ocean vs land? I don't write this post with any spite; I am genuinely curious.

It’s priced based on value. 8oz of Coke costs vary at a supermarket shelf, gas station and an airplane.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#250

Post by lr1970 »

threeseed wrote: post #173
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There are plenty of YouTube videos showing Starlink on basic sailing yachts. It takes a day at most if you want a simple setup.

My friend is a boat captain in Florida.He says that Starlink on his boat changed his life.
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