Regular Phones Will Be Able To Talk With Satellites Soon

[Breau]

SpaceX and T-Mobile, and I imagine more carriers, are going to roll out service where regular phones can speak with SpaceX satellites (newer satellites that haven’t been launched yet) for texting and some data. If you are out of regular cell phone coverage and have a clear view of the sky, you should be able to access the satellite network.

It will be interesting to see how hard this is going to be on phone batteries, how fast the real world data speeds are going to be for users (Musk mentions 2-4mbit/s per cell and that a cell is quite large, but doesn’t say how large), and what kind of data or apps will be allowed on the satellite network.

The announcement: https://youtu.be/Qzli-Ww26Qs?t=660

News coverage: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/forget-5g-wireless-spacex-and-t-mobile-want-to-offer-zero-g-coverage/

My InReach Mini 2 may be my first and last dedicated satellite messenger.

[Dan]

Musk and others have been talking about the low-earth orbit satellites for a long time, mostly in the context of servicing low resource countries without the need for massive infrastructure projects. Hopefully it is truly close. Like you, I’m interested to see how it pans out in practice. Even relatively low bandwidth would be a game-changer for me, but I don’t think that would be acceptable for the range of applications that are envisioned.

I suspect that some people on the coasts will be scratching their heads wondering why anyone needs more coverage, but I agree it has some major ramifications for those of us who routinely have poor coverage driving and cycling in the mountains on a daily basis, not just hiking or skiing.

[Jerry Adams]

Musk often over promises.  It will be nice when this happens.  I wonder how much it will cost.

I’d just like to do text messages.  With my location automatically included.  Then I’ll ditch my Inreach.

The inreach is very annoying.  Weird user interface.  Takes forever to acquire position.  But I can successfully send and receive messages so it’s a great thing.

[Breau]

Musk often over promises.  It will be nice when this happens.  I wonder how much it will cost.

The new satellites need to be launched with their Starships, which hasn’t launched anything yet, so that could be a source of delay. Musk mentioned that they could use their Falcons with mini versions of the new sats, if they have delays with the Starships.

The service users will purchase will be from their from cell phone carriers and not SpaceX directly, the T-Mobile CEO said that he wants this service to be included at no additional charge for people that have their most popular plan(s). Their most basic, and less expensive plans, would probably have extra fees.

I won’t miss the quirkiness of the inReach ecosystem. I find the Garmin hardware is fine, it’s the software and services that I don’t particularly care for, maybe this announcement will give Garmin a bit of urgency to improve things. Having the ability to update tracks directly into Gaia and Caltopo would be the bee’s knees.

[Josh J]

I can almost guarantee plans are going to increase cost or new plans created.  You can’t have that technological break through and keep the same prices and make a profit. ….

Let’s face it the most popular unlimited plans start at $70 a line, it’s just going to go up from their and if it doesn’t they’ll hide in the taxes or some other fee in fine print

I’ll believe it when I see it which could be in another decade or so.

[DWR D]

I dread the day that I am hiking in a remote wilderness and other hikers are screaming into their phones in nearby camps, on mountain tops, and along the last of the peaceful trails…

 

 

[Bruce Tolley]

This was not a product announcement. This was Musk and the CEO of T-Mobile spinning and spinning.

Note that T-Mobile said “mobile plans”, he said nothing about phones that would be capable of doing what they were talking about.

What for the product demo, then wait 3 years for the product. And T-Mobile might be out of business by then….

Also has not Musk been raising prices of the internet service??

[Philip Tschersich]

It’s just a lot of vaporware speculation until it happens. The upcoming Apple iPhone 14 max could have some limited satellite capabilities, like contacting emergency services. It sounds mostly like pressing the SOS button on an inRe@ch, and not much else. It wouldn’t surprise me if actual data via satellite takes a while longer. People jabbering away on their cell phones in the wilderness, or scrolling through Instagram is going to take a long time. But being able to send basic text messages without relying on Garmin’s lame, kludgy system would be welcome.

iPhone 14 satellite capabilities?

[jscott]

Paper map. Silently gazing at a paper map. Breathe. Adventure on.

 

as opposed to, Elon Musk toking and chattering; “star ships” that are low flying satellites; Tmobile ads streaming in the back woods; unfulfilled promises made to boost stock prices; ever increasing costs…the busy busy lying world.

[Author]

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