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Comment by modeless | Hacker News Reader

GPS already works globally thanks to a very similar gift by the US government. Phones automatically send it to 911 when you call. So it's already paired. Starlink will additionally have some idea of a phone's location just due to how the phased arrays work, but not nearly as precise as GPS.

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Funny I think of it as a gift FROM the people TO the US Government.

I usually don’t give someone a gift and then borrow it back every day.

It's quite a stretch to call it a gift from the US government. The original GPS was opened up with horrible accuracy. Every superpower now operates their own positioning constellations free of charge. Thanks US, EU, Russia, India and China

>"The original GPS opened up with horrible accuracy"

When GPS launched more than thirty years ago, the accuracy for civilians was within 330 feet, made universally accessible at no additional cost to everyone in the world at a cost of 12 billion dollars. That's a pretty darn good gift if I've ever seen one. Also India does not have a global satellite navigation system, only a regional one.

Not only that, the US government stopped limiting accuracy in 2000. Long before any alternative was available publicly or globally. It's questionable whether other systems would have been made free if GPS hadn't set the example. It was absolutely a gift to the world and it's incredible the backflips people will turn to try to minimize it.

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