Apple and Amazon Ink Satellite Deal Amid Globalstar Takeover

[IIGS User]

Bezos or Musk.. choosing between the two evils is so hard.. feel like we need a third player in the space (literally) but then we have even more space junk up there.

Bezos wins because he's bald and his rocket looks "equipo" from a Dr. Evil standpoint.

All he needs is a hairless cat and a private island shaped like his head and he's got the whole package.

Picture of what Bezos' cat should look like.

 

[VulchR]

How exactly can you see satellites from earth?

Apparently sunshine bounces off the solar panels and bodies of the satellites. But also satellites are causing issues for radio astronomy.

 

[nutmac]

Missed opportunity. Avoiding Starlink/SpaceX is a fools errand.

Politics and controversies aside, Apple isn't avoiding SpaceX. Until recently, Starlink operated at much higher frequencies (10-90 GHz Ku/Ka spectrum) than Globalstar's (1600-2500 MHz). With T-Mobile, Starlink has a direct-to-cell that operates at T-Mobile's 1900 MHz spectrum, which is licensed from the FCC. Apple doesn't have a license to those spectrum, so that is not an option.

Moving forward, iPhone 18 is rumored to have 5G NTN that would allow 5G to pull data over cellular infrastructure or satellites (AST SpaceMobile and possibly SpaceX Starlink). But again, that would require a cellular service as it requires a licensed spectrum. And besides, all 3 US carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) are expected to offer 5G NTN, so there's no incentive for Apple to offer it.

The bigger question is why is Apple continuing to offer Globalstar? For now, 5G NTN isn't a thing so it offers a great stopgap solution. But once 5G NTN is widespread, I do question the need for such feature. One possible angle is that the US carriers will likely offer the feature as a premium feature, either bundled with the most expensive plan or as an add-on. T-Mobile currently does this. If Apple can continue to offer the Emergency SOS feature as either complementary or bundled with Apple One, it could still be very valuable.

 

[Crowbot]

I really only need emergency services, weather, maps (even low-res ones provided the relevant app has GPS), and text communication with immediate family via satellite. The other bells and whistles won't make a difference for me.

I live in Scotland and even here most places are covered by 4G and 5G, but there are places in the Highlands with no reception and it is reassuring having backup in case of emergency. FWIW I also carry a personal locator beacon, a physical map and a compass with me, as any sane person would away from civilisation.



I'd rather not contribute to a company that is crowding earth orbit with semi-disposable space junk. I like to look at the night sky and see stars, not satellites burning up or flashing sunlight.

I once saw a Russian booster rocket burn up on re-entry. Very cool.

 

[@Brett]

Getting sick of massive corporations buying up everything. I expect Amazon will now add extra fees to remove ads from Prime now. The greed is endless. But we are all stupid enough to continue paying for it.

 

[Crowbot]

Apparently sunshine bounces off the solar panels and bodies of the satellites. But also satellites are causing issues for radio astronomy.

We need to put big radio telescopes on the moon's far-side. No interference there.

 

[jamezr]

I'd rather not contribute to a company that is crowding earth orbit with semi-disposable space junk. I like to look at the night sky and see stars, not satellites burning up or flashing sunlight.

All satellites are potential future space junk. No matter what company deploys them.

 

[jamezr]

FWIW I also carry a personal locator beacon, a physical map and a compass with me, as any sane person would away from civilisation.

You know those use satellite data.......So you are contributing to a company that is crowding earth orbit with semi disposable space junk?

 

[McScooby]

I really only need emergency services, weather, maps (even low-res ones provided the relevant app has GPS), and text communication with immediate family via satellite. The other bells and whistles won't make a difference for me.

I live in Scotland and even here most places are covered by 4G and 5G, but there are places in the Highlands with no reception and it is reassuring having backup in case of emergency. FWIW I also carry a personal locator beacon, a physical map and a compass with me, as any sane person would away from civilisation.



I'd rather not contribute to a company that is crowding earth orbit with semi-disposable space junk. I like to look at the night sky and see stars, not satellites burning up or flashing sunlight.

I also live in Scotland and have patchy 4G or 5G in cities here, I'd welcome any additional bells and whistles with open arms.

 

[Yourekidding]

LEO. It’s an acronym, not a name.


Except now I see Amazon style it like that too … 🤦‍♂️

 

[BigMcGuire]

So now we're going to have 2 companies adding thousands upon thousands of satellites for 5G to cell service? I realize there's a lot of space up there... but good grief, that's going to be a lot of rockets and a lot of satellites over the next few years.

Even here in Northern California - it is amazing to me how often my iPhone's primary e-sim (Verizon Wireless) and secondary e-sim (T-Mobile) show no reception. I would love an option to have anywhere 5G / data.

I've used the Apple emergency satellite service exactly once and it was spotty, didn't quite work well, and went in and out so much that I wasn't really sure if it worked. (Probably didn't help we were on a side of a mountain). (It wasn't an emergency but we wanted to let family know we were ok). They did get 1 of the 4 texts we tried to send. We didn't get any of theirs.

Also looks like this'll be a new phone thing... 2027+. <Sigh>.

 

[ThisIsMike]

This just makes me sad. I was truly hoping Apple themselves would ultimately take over Globalstar, and leverage the connectivity to offer a better plan than the cellular carriers, or at least use the satellite service as another value-add to purchasing Apple gear. Sucks, but oh well.

 

[Tr55]

The lengths some companies and organisations will go to avoid Starlink is incredible.

In Australia, our NBN has signed with Amazon Leo when it isn’t even operating instead of Starlink which works now.

If I ran Starlink I would refuse to service Amazon Leo, how many companies in the world directly help their competitors to destroy their business model? Blue Origin has no other economical or even practical way to launch its satellite array.

 

[jlc1978]

Bezos wins because he's bald and his rocket looks "equipo" from a Dr. Evil standpoint.

It reminds me of the spaceship in Flesh Gordon.

This just makes me sad. I was truly hoping Apple themselves would ultimately take over Globalstar, and leverage the connectivity to offer a better plan than the cellular carriers, or at least use the satellite service as another value-add to purchasing Apple gear. Sucks, but oh well.

Apple could just leverage Amazon as an MVNO.

 

[deconstruct60]

Musk, like with Tesla, is losing interest in Starlink, Grok is his current interest. If Starlink follows the Tesla trajectory its technology with stagnate.

Musk saddled profitable SpaceX with unprofitable xAI (Grok) and unprotitable X (twitter). [ Also in part to goose the IPO of the combo bigger which if get enough cult folks buying into that combo... put even more money in his pocket. ]


The hand waving now is that going to put Grok in space. Going to flow expensive AI hardware through the Aura Borealis ( polar orbits don't get as much solar flare protection. )

 

[deconstruct60]

Getting sick of massive corporations buying up everything. I expect Amazon will now add extra fees to remove ads from Prime now. The greed is endless. But we are all stupid enough to continue paying for it.

Amazon going into AWS probably made Prime cheaper rather than more expensive. Leo is more an extension 'add on' to the AWS business than the Prime subsector business of Amazon.

" .. AT&T, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Leo today announced work to modernize the nation’s connectivity infrastructure and unlock the next wave of cloud driven innovation for U.S. businesses ..."

AT&T, AWS, and Amazon Leo Collaborate to Accelerate Modernization of Nation's Connectivity Infrastructure

New strategic agreements include migrating AT&T workloads to AWS, high-capacity fiber connectivity for data centers, and working with Amazon Leo to extend AT&T networks

press.aboutamazon.com

Leo is going to get sold in part to link datacenters together ( fiber cut failover and/or overflow) as much as to general public. ( waters a bit muddled because. Blue Origin also wants to do more data center focused service also with faster connections in technically separate company.
https://www.blueorigin.com/terawave )

Prime is getting more expensive because Amazon keeps adding endless 'perks' to the program. I highly doubt most people use all of them. Buying NFL games rights... prime goes up. Infinite Photo storage. Gaming. .... There is now a BP gas plus Prime 'deal'. It has become a 'everything and the kitchen sink' bundle. Leo has nothing to do with that. I highly doubt going to get 'free' Leo access with a Prime membership.

At least in USA the categories is pretty long. ( Prime versus Prime Shipping)

Prime Membership Plans Comparison - Amazon Customer Service

Amazon Prime and Amazon Prime Shipping membership plans offer a variety of benefits.

www.amazon.com

can also just get "Prime Video" separate from "Prime".

 

[deconstruct60]

So is this a cash deal or stock deal? Asking for a friend who has shares.

Either (mostly stockholder choice. Although some fractional shares or hard to covert amounts may default to cash. ).

".. Under the terms of the merger agreement, prior to closing, Globalstar stockholders will elect to receive for each share of Globalstar common stock they own either (i) $90.00 in cash or (ii) 0.3210 shares of Amazon common stock with a value capped at $90.00 per share. ..."

https://investors.globalstar.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-acquire-globalstar-and-expand-amazon-leo-satellite

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

How exactly can you see satellites from earth?

Go outside at night and let your eyes adjust and you will see "stars" that move. Those are satellites.

 

[deconstruct60]

Going with SpaceX would have been better, but I expect Apple to choose second-class lately.

When Apple started rolling this out SpaceX didn't have a viable solution to work with a iPhone friendly frequencies.

SpaceX still does not have a worldwide solution for this.

From a technical perspective SpaceX/Starlink is second class here. Apple is looking for something like the iPhone. Basically one device that they ship worldwide ( no keyboards per country). Very similar reason why Infineon modems lost out to Qualcomm over time. Qualcomm has a one model for whole world solution. Infinieon didn't... so they got dropped.

SpaceX has way , way ,way more hype train 'heft' , but technical on the constraints Apple was likely giving them... no. Space has a hodge podge solution where need to incrementally deal local equivlaent FCC and local service vendor deals all around the global to get a fully wide platform.

For an emergency only, limited cost to Apple enduser customer service what they have is fine. SpaceX likely wouldn't be cheaper either. ( Apple is still trying dragging their feet as to whether they want to charge for this).

 

[keenast12]

Missed opportunity. Avoiding Starlink/SpaceX is a fools errand.

Meaning....?

 

[deconstruct60]

Go outside at night and let your eyes adjust and you will see "stars" that move. Those are satellites.

Presuming ground light background is low enough. Some locations use lots of lights on the ground also. Look up from Times Square in NYC is kind of tough to get past what is closer to eye level. More than a few 100+ year old observatories that were in much smaller 'metro' areas at the time, don't really work well anymore.

 

[svish]

Good to hear about this Hopefully the satellite features of iPhone will expand to new markets in the near future.

 

[VulchR]

We need to put big radio telescopes on the moon's far-side. No interference there.

Yet. Presumably far-side lunar operations would require communication satellites orbiting the moon to communicate with Earth. And then of course there will be spy satellites as well. 😖

 

[VulchR]

All satellites are potential future space junk. No matter what company deploys them.

You know those use satellite data.......So you are contributing to a company that is crowding earth orbit with semi disposable space junk?

StarLink satellites seem to have a shorter lifespan than others. The strategy seems to be saturate the space with them so that if a few fail it doesn't matter. Not sure what StarLink is doing about controlled de-orbiting of obsolete satellites and reducing the optical flaring of their satellites. Perhaps you do?

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

I don't understand the objections to Starlink. As far as I am aware the older generations of their satellites had the reflectivity problem - now the newer ones have a different design so they aren't ruining the night sky, they also are programmed to de-orbit at the end of their lifecycle so they don't contribute to space junk.