Apple/Google don't hold any RF spectrum rights worldwide...
This is presumably about 4G/LTE, so mostly between 0.4-2.5 GHz or so.
This is presumably about 4G/LTE, so mostly between 0.4-2.5 GHz or so.
They have already invested hundreds of millions into Globalstar's ground station hardware [1] and future satellite launches [2].
[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/11/emergency-sos-via-sat...
[2] https://spacenews.com/apple-loans-globalstar-252-million-for...
yet. Apple (and android baseband suppliers, “Google” may be the wrong name to mention here), have the ability to take relatively worthless spectrum and make it widely useful in a way nobody else can.
I wonder how spectrum allocation works for C-Band satellite broadcasters that just blast continents with their signals. Grandfathered?
Hence why the spectrum should be pretty cheap (along with its incredible susceptibility to obstructions… which is less of an issue when you’re going roughly “up” without pesky considerations like curvature of the earth)
And you do get a ton of gain with a small antenna at those high frequencies.
I could see it kinda working, at low frequencies. They are not that far away and there's not many things blocking the signal besides your roof.
> Problem with slow data rates is that they clog up the channels.
Yes, we must protect the tubes! :)
(e.g. we can't build a solar panel that works perpendicular to the sun (or nearly perpendicular) using phased array technology because there just isn't much solar radiation hitting the "dish" in the first place)