The $17B purchase by SpaceX of spectrum owned by Echo Star will soon give cellphone users the ability to bypass terrestrial government-controlled communication gateways and networks and reliably connect user-to-user globally, no cell phone towers involved.
Ugh.
Why Ugh? Another provider comes to market on scale with ATT, T-Mobile and Verizon.
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At first I thought you were talking about Spectrum, the cable/internet company. But you’re talking about frequencies?
Yes. If Musk cured cancer lefties would be angry, they’re a special kind of stupid.
Starlink allows other cellular companies to use their satellites in an emergency, will you refuse to use that service if you need it some day?
Also provided services for free to Ukraine immediately after the Russian invasion, and provided services for natural disasters.
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Because when I first saw this, I read it as glasspilot did, thinking Musk was buying Spectrum (my internet provider) and reducing competition.
Fair enough
Yeah, it allows individual cell phones like the iPhone 14 & 17 to use direct-to-satellite communications, similar to the Starlink system, but not limited to line-of-sight or dense concrete buildings that that band has.
It takes a lotta juice to get a signal up to the satellite the limitations of current cell phones is battery power. The iPhone 14 & 17 have enough to use with that spectrum. The antennas in current cell phones would work ok.
The big news about the cell phone capability is that it can bypass current barriers and controls of existing global networks, kinda like the amateur ham radio bands do today because that band’s carrier signal “bends” with the earth’s curvature making it somewhat reliable over long distances.
It’ll interesting to see what different countries do to try and control it.
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