Linus checks out Starlink

[Ianab]

I was delivering Christmas shopping today and had to drive up to Murray's house. So I took a pic of his internet antenna. 



 

It's local ground based microwave, working over a network of small repeaters scattered around the countryside. I think they are currently running about 20 mb, but cheaper than any satellite service. 

[SawyerTed]

I like it!

The dish blends in with the bog harrow pretty well.   Nice camouflage!  

[Broncman]

We have little to no service at my mill and house sight. We have our RV set up there as well. Wife has to have high speed to work from "home".

Now home is anywhere we set up the RV Starlink. Little on the expensive side, but is has given us the freedom to travel and get back into remote rural areas. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I just saw that Starlink is going to come out with a direct to cell service soon.  It looks like first it will just be texting service, with voice coming the following year.

[Ianab]

Our cell company here in NZ has already announced they will be offering the service, probably later in 2024. As announced it's only txt at first, then voice and data to follow. I'm guessing that at first they will be limited bandwidth and probably intermittent coverage until they get enough birds in orbit. Txt service doesn't need full time coverage, if there is a few minutes gap in coverage the system will still get the message though with a delay. So they maybe only need 1/2 the number of sats to make it work. You might get signal for 5 mins, then a 5 min gap. Useless for voice calls, but usable for txt messaging.

As they fill in the gaps and get more bandwidth then voice can be enabled. I guess the system will be set up to connect to the ground towers first, then "roam" to the satellite based network. Currently they figure that ~98% of phones are in coverage, but it's only ~50% of the land area. I'm guessing it may be similar in the US, in more remote and hilly areas.

[Ianab]

First 6 Cellular satellites have been launched (and tested). Not enough to create a "shell" yet, so it's not available publicly. Initially it's only Txt service as bandwidth is probably limited, and Txt will work even if connection isn't 100%. Your phone will try to send for a few minutes before it errors, and if the base station can't find you, you get your incoming txt when it does. Doesn't matter if that's 5 mins later. At least it will work.

Being able to send a message like...
"I'm about 5 miles up Dead Mans Gulch and I've broken my leg - send help"

Voice and data planned for next year. It's not going to compete with Starlink Internet for speed, because it's just a regular cellphone working though a "tower" ~300 miles away. There seems to a lot of technical magic gone into the antenna design on the Sats to beam and receive signals from a regular cellphone, from space. 

?Such signal, much wow?: Starlink?s first texts via ?cellphone towers in space? | Ars Technica

[SwampDonkey]

Cell phone service here is like, you're on your own. They'll set you up, but don't care if you have service. Everything works great at the shop in town. :D There's 3 towers within 10 miles of here, some half or less that. All behind the hills. You have to leave the house and go out over the hill on a cross road to get full bars. At the house you fade in and out of 1 bar strength. :D Had a cell phone one time back 20 years ago. Found I never used it much. Only put a prepay plan on it. After while I began to wonder why I was giving $50 away and using only using about $10. These cards had expiry dates. So put the thing in a drawer and never had any desire for one since. Then learned about all the spying going on, so not interested from then on out. Even a regular phone hardly gets used by me. Most calls I get are for 2 factor sign in codes. Most of the other stuff is unsolicited scam calls. I call out maybe once a month at most. :D :D

[Ianab]

To be fair, a smartphone without a network connection is basically an expensive paperweight, so I can understand you not using one. But that's what the Starlink cellular service is attempting to fix.

There is a feeling that smartphones are "taking over peoples lives". Maybe true, but I think it's more that they are replacing other things that were previously used. Newspapers? Camera? Dairies? Maps / Compasses? Radio ? The Post Office? Walkman? And of course land line phones.