T-mobile and SpaceX world wide cell coverage.

[tdhanses]

I heard this will be voice only for satellite and that data would require a different type of antenna


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Text only to start with and maybe voice/data later on.

 

[Red Letters]

What is the down side to having cell service in current dead zones? They specifically mentioned Alaska and said that even if cell towers are taken out you’d still have coverage.

 

[9.1]

Only that your family, friends, and employer might expect you to be available to them. I've learned to turn notifications off and/or or power of the phone when I don't want to be available. Some people expect you to never stop working. When AutoCAD came out with a phone app, my boss told me that I no longer had an excuse to stop working during restroom breaks.

 

[go_deep]

Only that your family, friends, and employer might expect you to be available to them. Some people expect you to never stop working. When AutoCAD came out with a phone app, my boss told me that I no longer had an excuse to stop working during restroom breaks.

You need a new employer.

 

[axeforce6]

You need a new employer.

Your absolutely right.

 

[Marbles]

It will be interesting if this gets pulled off in a meaningful way. Musk tends to over promise and underdeliver very consistently, so it would not surprise me if this is one more pipe dream that has not been adequately worked through.

In 2019, Lynk successfully communicated with cell phones from space, so it is possible. I think in the end, it will not add enough value for enough customers to be financially viable. In the lower 48, adding traditional cells is a far cheaper option. In Alaska, the customer base is small (population less than 750,000).

 

[go_deep]

It will be interesting if this gets pulled off in a meaningful way. Musk tends to over promise and underdeliver very consistently, so it would not surprise me if this is one more pipe dream that has not been adequately worked through.

In 2019, Lynk successfully communicated with cell phones from space, so it is possible. I think in the end, it will not add enough value for enough customers to be financially viable. In the lower 48, adding traditional cells is a far cheaper option. In Alaska, the customer base is small (population less than 750,000).

It's doesn't take a lot of birds to cover a huge area from space. With it being text only, that's a big difference then actually a quality voice call with the ground to bird latency.

 

[roadrunner]

This is exactly what's ruining small town America -- reliable cell service along with high speed internet add in low housing costs and Californians will be your new neighbors.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

California's should have to suspend their voting privileges for 5 years when they move to a rural town/state.

 

[Marbles]

It's doesn't take a lot of birds to cover a huge area from space. With it being text only, that's a big difference then actually a quality voice call with the ground to bird latency.

How many channels are available (about 832)? How fast will that number be saturated if covering a large area? It is significantly harder to make an antenna that picks up weak signals over a large area than one that picks up the same signals from a much smaller area. You can think of this like optics, you are effectively trying to make a 90x spotter with a 200 meter field of view at 1000 meters.

I cannot say it is impossible, but it is very technically challenging.

Starlink also uses low earth orbit satellites, meaning they cover a smaller area. The geostationary satallites used by Globalstar orbit at a little over 35,000 km, the low earth orbit satallites used by Starlink orbit at closer to 1000 km, meaning a much smaller footprint.

Starlink currently has over 3,000 satallites, none of which have the large antenna needed to work with cell phones. Starlink has filed for approval to launch 30,000 low earth orbit satallites (a huge jump from the initially approved 4,400 and the currently approved 12,000). Yes, those numbers are thousands, not hundreds.

 

[9.1]

You need a new employer.

I should clarify a few things about that story. That was 10 years ago, he was probably mostly joking, and I did find a new employer.

I honestly don't mind the availability of cell service, though, because I'm not afraid to shut it down when I want to get away.

 

[Scrappy]

This is exactly what's ruining small town America -- reliable cell service along with high speed internet add in low housing costs and Californians will be your new neighbors.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Yup folks from Cali are like cock roaches, infest everywhere and bug the crap out of everyone.

 

[9.1]

Starlink currently has over 3,000 satallites, none of which have the large antenna needed to work with cell phones. Starlink has filed for approval to launch 30,000 low earth orbit satallites (a huge jump from the initially approved 4,400 and the currently approved 12,000). Yes, those numbers are thousands, not hundreds.

If the T-mobile network runs text, voice, and data today on 85,000 towers that are 15-70 meters tall, it makes sense to me that they could offer text-only using 30,000 satellites in orbit at 550 km. Maybe I'll be able to cancel my Zoleo subscription in 2024.

 

[tradman]

I sense a "Kingsman" scenario.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

All I know is I canceled my starlink since I was able to get t mobile home internet out here in the sticks of South Carolina. 80-100 mbps upload is blazing fast compared to the old Verizon hotspot. 50 bucks a month unlimited data. I’m super happy with it!

 

[tradman]

All I know is I canceled my starlink since I was able to get t mobile home internet out here in the sticks of South Carolina. 80-100 mbps upload is blazing fast compared to the old Verizon hotspot. 50 bucks a month unlimited data. I’m super happy with it!

We dropped Cox services after they couldn't do a simple transfer of service. It was a complete nightmare with them. I eventually had to go thru the BBB 3 times to get corrections made. Canceled their service in April and was still being charged up until last month.

Now have Tmobile home internet, can't beat 50 bucks a month and the service and speed has been awesome! A third of the price of Cox's bogus service.

 

[sneaky]

Instead of listening to a guy bugling in your favorite drainage, soon you'll have to listen to him argue with his wife. People will be sitting on ridges texting and not paying attention to anything around them. Some places need to be deliberately hard to reach.

 

[UnckleBob]

It will be interesting if this gets pulled off in a meaningful way. Musk tends to over promise and underdeliver very consistently, so it would not surprise me if this is one more pipe dream that has not been adequately worked through.

In 2019, Lynk successfully communicated with cell phones from space, so it is possible. I think in the end, it will not add enough value for enough customers to be financially viable. In the lower 48, adding traditional cells is a far cheaper option. In Alaska, the customer base is small (population less than 750,000).

There are a lot of places in the world where cell phone service is limited. I suspect this product is being developed for them with the North American market just tagging along for the ride.

 

[UnckleBob]

Instead of listening to a guy bugling in your favorite drainage, soon you'll have to listen to him argue with his wife. People will be sitting on ridges texting and not paying attention to anything around them. Some places need to be deliberately hard to reach.

I know there are already emergency satellite beacons but I would love to;
1) use it as a beacon for emergencies
2) use the data for things like weather and mapping.

 

[VizslaHunt]

Instead of listening to a guy bugling in your favorite drainage, soon you'll have to listen to him argue with his wife. People will be sitting on ridges texting and not paying attention to anything around them. Some places need to be deliberately hard to reach.

If they’re distracted playing on their phone, isn’t that just more elk for you?

Who cares what other people do.

 

[Marbles]

There are a lot of places in the world where cell phone service is limited. I suspect this product is being developed for them with the North American market just tagging along for the ride.

Places without cell coverage in the world are predominantly rural and/or poor or ideologically hostile.

Poor=not much profit as people cannot pay as much.
Rural=not much profit as there are few customers.

Population centers in India, Southeast Asia, and South/Central America have good cell coverage already. Parts of Africa have good cell coverage. Europe and Eastern Russia have good cell coverage. Is the primary target of this Mongolia? The Australian Outback? Mozambique? Or is the primary target rich markets and hoping it adds enough value to get people to pay more for it?