"Such signal, much wow": Starlink's first texts via "cellphone towers in space" | Hacker News Reader

"Such signal, much wow": Starlink's first texts via "cellphone towers in space"

arstechnica.com

16 pointsisaacfrond20 comments

The latency is so bad that the memes are 3 years old by the time you read them.

It can provide text messaging levels of bandwidth where there is no reception but isn’t competitive with terrestrial towers

It is infinitely more competitive than no signal in many parts of the US.

The article says as much but I think this is fantastic anyways.

That's because theres only a handful of satellites covering the entire area currently, they've already said voice and data will come but that the current cellular satellite network is just a couple satellites providing the coverage.

The main reason it will never be competitive is that the signal from a small device to satellite will always be weak. The Starlink V2 satellites have a big antenna to even work.

The cells for Direct-to-Cell are hundreds of miles in diameter which means the modest (10 Mbps) bandwidth is spread over thousands of people. There is enough bandwidth for voice and very limited data, but they would need to get it working first.

he's going to add dogecoin to x.com isn't he?

to the moon!

Wonder how long it'll be until we find out they're being used for warrant-less wiretapping (or equivalent thing) of people's comms outside the US?

I am more worried about position tracking of me by the US gov. or spyware companies in general. Does my phone connect to roaming towers when there is normal towers in range? Is there any way to blacklist the satellites?

If you turn off the cell radio on your phone then it won’t emit cell phone signals. Apart from that you must send a signal to be able to receive calls and data packets. And that signal encodes your location.

Sure, but does my phone transmitt my number (or some id/fingerprint) to Elon Musk when he flies over me?

I understand that the local towers need my number to be able to call me.

SIGINT sats been collecting all sort of signals for decades. Wifi/cell mac addresses too.

Yeah, this is the commoditisation of the technology, so it becomes more widely available.

Wonder how well it'll be received when China starts it's own Starlink competitor doing this too?

or that starlink's primary purpose is satellite imagery, with the massive amount of data it constantly streams back being covered up by the 'its civilian internet' front.

The degree to which SpaceX/Elon musk's humor is ripped from 2012 and has made zero attempt to stay current tells a story.

I'm not sure what that story is, maybe it's that millennials are hitting that age where they are culturally calcifying? But even as a 40 year old, I know doge memes are ancient.

Musk was born in 1971, as much as I hate to admit it, he's Gen-X not a millenial.

Elon Musk really delivers at the end of the day. As a person he might be incorrigible but nobody else pushes the boundaries like him.

Like I remember satellite internet and satellite phones for so long and they remained so shitty till Elon Musk came across the scene.

Full self driving for Tesla seems like a miss though. :/

That is so obviously a lie, I am surprised people actually believed him. Maybe one day, but not today.

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