Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
Bezos and Musk’s satellite internet could save Americans $30B a year
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Starlink was suppose to fill the sky with many tiny satellites. But I have notices a trend. For weeks, no visible Starlinks. Suddenly, over a 20 minute period, over 24 appeared in a group. Most only in a 5 minute period. How long before these 'space out'?
Satellite constellations from Amazon, SpaceX, and Oneweb do not talk directly to handsets. These talk to ground stations. Gateways that, in turn, retransmit to other receivers.
More problems exist. Many countries have not authorized frequencies for these satellite. So ech must turn off when over certain countries.
A satellite that can talk directly to phones (as Iridium must do do) still must be quite large. And must support 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies.
Companies such a Vodafone and Rakuten are working together to develop a technology that does not require ground stations.