T-mobile and SpaceX world wide cell coverage.

[TheTone]

I hate the thought of money of mine going to Elon

 

[fmyth]

Hope it works better than the Starlink I've been waiting 14 months to receive.

You could order the "RV" version and have it in 7 days.

 

[Unckebob]

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?

In many of those countries, malignant governments can and do control cell phone access. They cannot control satellites. Maybe this is a way around that? I just don't think it was developed for people driving around the USA.

 

[324matt]

I’ll stick with the inreach

 

[Marbles]

In many of those countries, malignant governments can and do control cell phone access. They cannot control satellites. Maybe this is a way around that? I just don't think it was developed for people driving around the USA.

Not really, frequencies are licensed, use and payment for the service could easily be restricted, it is certainly not being developed to be handed out free of charge. This is acknowledged by T-Mobile's offer to partner with other cellular providers https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-coverage-above-and-beyond-with-spacex

For meaningful local communications you must have local base stations and tap into local hardline networks (like cellular technology already does). Most communication takes place within a countries boarders, not across them. Another way authoritarian regimes will maintain control. It does offer some ability to work around such governments, but such abilities already exist for the tech savvy, and are predominantly used by criminals (i.e. TOR).

To be clear, I don't put T-Mobile's and Space-X's current ideas in the impossible category, only the unlikely to succeed as commercially viable category.

Handsets are cheap, and routinely replaced. Satallites are expensive and operated for many years with little ability to upgrade. Apple's approach is more flexible and given the current state of the technology, more likely to evolve in a viable way. It also dose not involve putting two time more satallites in orbit than have ever been launched.

 

[Mikej]

Buy rv get it now.

 

[Aluminum Rain]

I see the RV plan is going for $135/month. Is that what regular Starlink costs now too? It was $99/ month when i signed up.

 

[BucksNBulls]

You need a new employer.

Haha, I just made my company owner buy me a Sat phone. I'll be in Idaho and Utah for a month straight with no service. I have to be able to talk to all my guys/crews while I'm gone. I'd be worried they were screwing something up every day if I couldn't talk to them.