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T-Mobile and SpaceX's Satellite Connectivity Likely Won't Require an iPhone 14

svish said:
Good. Looking forward to hearing more about all the devices that support this.
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They said any phone that could connect to that mid band frequency. From what it sounded like that is most phones in peoples’ hands right now. Your phone won’t know the difference if it is connected to a satellite or a cell tower. Thats the idea anyways.
 
semka said:
On a ship, they would have a base Starlink station capable of handling thousands of calls.
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No, the concept as presented does not require ground infrastructure. That would be a different type of setup if a cruise line wanted to subscribe and set up equipment to handle the relay. The current T-Mobile deal just provides access directly to Starlink satellites anywhere there is Starlink coverage. No ground station required. So, as I said, useless in close proximity to hundreds of users on a ship.
 
Scoob Redux said:
No, the concept as presented does not require ground infrastructure. That would be a different type of setup if a cruise line wanted to subscribe and set up equipment to handle the relay. The current T-Mobile deal just provides access directly to Starlink satellites anywhere there is Starlink coverage. No ground station required. So, as I said, useless in close proximity to hundreds of users on a ship.
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the guy already explained most ships have starlink or other satellite broadband service available as of today so like he implied there no point talking about phone-to-satellite on a cruise ship. plus direct phone-to-satellite won’t be available til at least another year anyway. and no, it’s not ANYWHERE there’s starlink v2 coverage, that’s the reason they need to get telecom providers in other countries to sign up as well. they’re only able to guarantee within US territories for now, so don’t bet on getting coverage on a ship out in international territorial waters. But your whole point is moot anyway when ships already have existing better and way faster options available
 
Sounds like there’s a lot of misunderstanding of what this service is for. It’s not so you can slide into somebody’s DMs when you’re in that cellular weak spot in your back yard. It’s so you can send your GPS coordinates to emergency responders when you find yourself in a “128 Hours” situation. It doesn’t have to work well to be worthwhile, it just has to increase your chances of being rescued above zero.
 
twocents said:
Having been with all three, I rank them as:

T-Mobile > Verizon > AT&T

As such, this is more to ’love’ as far as carriers are concerned
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It depends on the specific criteria but I generally agree. AT&T is definitely worst in every way, though ironically lately I have seen areas where they have the best / only coverage, though that tends to be balanced out by areas of no coverage.

But it’s not worth the price of dealing with AT&T, in every sense of the word. Worst telecommunications company in America. I hate that the thing that now calls itself AT&T owns that name.
 
g000 said:
the guy already explained most ships have starlink or other satellite broadband service available as of today so like he implied there no point talking about phone-to-satellite on a cruise ship. plus direct phone-to-satellite won’t be available til at least another year anyway. and no, it’s not ANYWHERE there’s starlink v2 coverage, that’s the reason they need to get telecom providers in other countries to sign up as well. they’re only able to guarantee within US territories for now, so don’t bet on getting coverage on a ship out in international territorial waters. But your whole point is moot anyway when ships already have existing better and way faster options available
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Of course ships have offered satellite services for many years. Cruise lines charge customers directly for that. What does your comment have to do with the Starlink service announced?
 
aajeevlin said:
“As of August 2022, AST SpaceMobile has launched no satellites.”

Yeah sorry I don’t buy it, this is a numbers game you can’t do anything if you don’t have satellite in space I don’t care how many patents you have. I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Fair, but neither does Starlink. Both are starting at 0, and ASTS are launching their final test satellite ~Sept 7. Starlink is still in lab
 
Bkfraiders7 said:
Fair, but neither does Starlink. Both are starting at 0, and ASTS are launching their final test satellite ~Sept 7. Starlink is still in lab
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What are you taking about? Starlink is years ahead of ASTS.

Starlink is still in the lab? with 500,000 subscribers. Starlink currently has 3000 mass produced satellite in LEO (Lower Earth Orbit) vs ASTS 0 satellites.

en.wikipedia.org

Starlink - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Do you know how long it would take ASTS to lunch 3000 satellites? Starlink has the advantage of SpaceX which allows for them to perform vertical integration so they are basically make their own satellite and they also have their own ride. They don't have to go out and buy rocket to lunch their own satellites.
 
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aajeevlin said:
What are you taking about? Starlink is years ahead of ASTS.

Starlink is still in the lab? with 500,000 subscribers. Starlink currently has 3000 mass produced satellite in LEO (Lower Earth Orbit) vs ASTS 0 satellites.

en.wikipedia.org

Starlink - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Do you know how long it would take ASTS to lunch 3000 satellites? Starlink has the advantage of SpaceX which allows for them to perform vertical integration so they are basically make their own satellite and they also have their own ride. They don't have to go out and buy rocket to lunch their own satellites.
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Sigh… Starlink has 0 Starlink V2 Rockets in orbit that are capable of direct to device. Zero. It’s a hard reset as Starlink V1 satellites will not provide any service direct to device. You also seem to have an issue with me quoting Elon saying they’ve had success in lab with this new feature set for Starlink V2 satellites.

As for the number of satellites, ASTS is launching larger satellites around 240-320. They also have a multi-year, multi-launch agreement with SpaceX to launch their satellites. So that is kind of a moot point.
 
Bkfraiders7 said:
Sigh… Starlink has 0 Starlink V2 Rockets in orbit that are capable of direct to device. Zero. It’s a hard reset as Starlink V1 satellites will not provide any service direct to device. You also seem to have an issue with me quoting Elon saying they’ve had success in lab with this new feature set for Starlink V2 satellites.

As for the number of satellites, ASTS is launching larger satellites around 240-320. They also have a multi-year, multi-launch agreement with SpaceX to launch their satellites. So that is kind of a moot point.
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Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it. Let me know when ASTS actually get around to fully deploy all and become mission ready.
 
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