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Starlink Direct to Cell

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Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#111

Post by handfuloflight »

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?

Encourage others to explore the wilderness?

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#112

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

nordsieck wrote: post #34
jebarker wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially I thought the same re: hiking, skiing etc. The only issue I see is that cellphone battery life is terrible compared to inReach like devices. Not sure I'd want to depend on it for longer than a few hours.

> The only issue I see is that cellphone battery life is terrible compared to inReach like devices. Not sure I'd want to depend on it for longer than a few hours. I think it depends on the application you're using it for. If you're constantly using the gps - yeah, I'd definitely agree with you. But if you're using it purely for emergency communication, you can just turn off the cell phone, and it should be fine. It's…

> It's also possible to pursue a hybrid approach by bringing a battery to change the phone.

Or, as I have done on multi-day trips, a solar panel and a battery.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#113

Post by shafyy »

kylebenzle wrote: post #2

So they now offer direct cellular coverage whereas before only offered internet? This is great for regions that need to be connected and the power elites, but for the rest of us it wouldn't change much. I disagree with almost all of Elon's "politics" but Starlink still has huge potential. Hopefully, he doesn’t abuse the power too much and focuses on making the world more connected, in the hands of the us government a…

> Hopefully, he doesn’t abuse the power too much

Haha, good one.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#114

Post by Polizeiposaune »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #99

My question is how the laser backhaul works. If the satellites are constantly moving how do they adjust since lasers require line of sight?

The constellation is subdivided into orbital planes, with ~20 to ~60 satellites in each plane chasing each other around the planet.

The following is somewhat speculative:

The bearing to the next satellite ahead or behind you in the same plane should be roughly constant; likewise, the bearing to satellites in adjacent planes orbiting in the same direction will change slowly during most of the orbit.

Near the poles the required slew rate will likely be too high to keep the side-to-side links working but that's also a part of the planet where subscriber density will be low so losing that capacity for periods of a few minutes when near the poles likely won't matter.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#115

Post by ChocolateGod »

Retric wrote: post #16
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

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.

Could Starlink receivers not act as a mesh like network and broadcast LTE themselves, gaining inside coverage.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#116

Post by faebi »

Which bandwidth can a phone reasonably expect given nobody around for kilometers? Are we talking kbits or mbits? Is there some kind of theoretical maximum?

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#117

Post by paxys »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #108
paxys wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Unless they can remove buildings from this world, that isn't going to be a reality.

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#118

Post by Hamuko »

skissane wrote: post #97
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. My understanding is that, given Tesla is a public company, any collaboration between Tesla and other Musk companies needs to be approved by the board (or maybe by other C-suite executives) without Musk in the room. Musk can come up with the idea for a collaboration, but the…

Wasn't Musk pulling Tesla engineers to go work on Twitter?

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#119

Post by bdangubic »

handfuloflight wrote: post #111
rafram wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? Encourage others to explore the wilderness?

or like most other tech - do the opposite “why would I explore in person when I can watch it from my couch”

Re: Starlink Direct to Cell

#120

Post by bri3d »

maxrmk wrote: post #109
lupusreal wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In 2G/3G networks, IMSI is unencrypted in the initial handshake process while the handset gets a TMSI, so it can very trivially be passively observed, but only at specific points in time.

In 5G this is somewhat fixed - the handset uses its Home Network Public Key to encrypt the device-specific IMSI (producing a SUCI) which only the Home Network can decrypt. The MCC and MNC (carrier information) are still sent in the clear to allow the encrypted SUCI to route to the correct Home Network for decryption.

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