Nice if possible. However such features will not be available in many countries and that too international expansion might be at least few years away.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 18 Pro Rumored to Support Full 5G Satellite Internet
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Currently Starlink requires a relatively large antenna with direct line of sight. Even the smallest Starlink Mini draws about 40 watts of power. An iPhone's antenna is very small and the phone works in the mW range. I get that the next gen of Starlink satellites will have a lower orbit to facilitate this but T-mobile's current DTC implementation gets very low bandwidth even under ideal conditions. It's fine if you're in the middle of nowhere but I'm doubtful anyone in an urban setting would find DTC satisfactory compared to terrestrial towers. I just don't see anyone who has access to service wanting to use Starlink as their sole provider.
How are they at a disadvantage when Tesla controls pricing? Some early Tesla buyers purchased their evs with free access to the supercharger network - that was the early adopter bonus for the high price of the cars.
Tesla sets the rates for each group of users, and you always need an app, with a user account, to get power from any charging network where you are pre- identified by car model. So like every other business that can price discriminate among its users, Tesla can provide (and make a lot of money) access to non-Tesla evs at high prices per kwH while still providing an incentive for drivers to buy a Tesla and access the supercharger network at reduced, or even free, prices.
The reality is that most of us do 90-95% of our charging at home on a level 2 charger with our regular residential price per kWH, because it is a fraction of what ANY Level 3 network charges.
There’s tons of money that will be made providing electricity to high speed charging locations in the future, and I suspect many of these will bypass the grid entirely. Why sell bulk electricity from a large solar farm to your local utility at $.04/kwH when you can built a few hundred miles of transmission lines and sell it at $.34/kwH to drivers on the highways at large supercharging locations?
I already explained: people will buy their cars less. Lifetime of additional profits from supercharging (and charging a higher price) on non-Tesla EVs won't make up for the lost potential profits of people buying Tesla cars.
I don't see the relevance here.
I'm aware of how it works. I have a Tesla. Their V4 stalls show $0.60/kWh on the screen but when I plug in my Tesla, I'm charged $0.42/kWh.
There's a ton more money selling the actual car since Tesla would profit from Teslas using Superchargers and selling services to the Tesla owners. But now that people don't need to buy a Tesla to access the Supercharger network, people are free to buy non-Tesla cars.
It would be great if Apple used this partnership with SpaceX to become the first virtual mobile operator with satellite connectivity worldwide. You'd get your eSIM from your iPhone, just like you can get Apple Care.
Cruise ship passengers rejoice, everyone else yawns (except the 0.0001% climbing a mountain) /s
Cod3rror
macrumors 68000
How can it be "5G" if it's satellite connectivity? Is it not a difference technology?
I think eventually satellite technology will compete with cellular technology. They will have their own towers and they will distribute the connectivity to the end customer from there, except the towers will be communicating with satellites.
I think eventually satellite technology will compete with cellular technology. They will have their own towers and they will distribute the connectivity to the end customer from there, except the towers will be communicating with satellites.
Jobs vs Musk would have been interesting.
fchain
macrumors newbie
You could use the iphone anywhere directly with Starlink without the necesity of a starkink anthena.
Because you can’t carry a fiber or cable connection with you anywhere, like you can a portable StarLink dish.
Battery life on my 12 Pro was pretty good even on 5G. It’s the model that brought me back to iPhones.
I couldn’t stand the thought of Apple giving some of my money to the real-life Sith Lord of our times. Not when 5G has great speeds, already connects 3 billion people worldwide and is still getting better every year. I hope this is not real, or else they make it a $100 option.
J Osborne
macrumors newbie
Will it?
I’m in rural VT and there are places with no reception (several in my garage, multiple on my property, not really any as you get into town though). I’m not convinced I would find it valuable to pay for general satellite connectivity if I already have some form of emergency SMS. About the most I could see using it for is getting a map in an area I didn’t think to load it in advance, and Apple Maps has been getting much better at locally caching areas around routes so if you drive off course they tend to know what is around you even if connectivity is zero.
I mean I wouldn’t _mind_ it, but I’m not sure I would pay extra dollars for it if it were a choice.
Magnus81
macrumors member
Considering how Elon went from hating Anthropic to celebrating them after they leased one datacenter for X BUSD from SpaceX/xAI - my impression is that if Apple brings billions to SpaceX then suddenly Elon will love them. 😊 It’s all about business and money for future Mars projects.
I also think Elon is iPhone user and likes Steve Jobs.