Starlink direct-to-cell is coming to Ukraine Ukraine mobile operator Kyivstar will roll out direct-to-cell satellite connectivity via Starlink. According to Kyivstar, it expects to get messages working by the end of 2025 and will expand with voice and data later. The service utilizes Starlink satellites equipped to function as virtual cell towers, enabling users to …
Nah, he'll be laughing because his mate Trump will tell him everything that Musk has intercepted this way.
This thing will be so heavily intercepted it'll make SkyECC look like a trustworthy, secure platform. But it's apparently all OK if US agencies do it, of course no need for a warrant.
I think it does short messages only, that is a *LOT* less bandwidth and what matters is energy per bit / noise density, if you drop the bit rate for the same power your per-bit energy is increased.
Yes, there are other limits on being able to acquire/track low SNR transmissions but that is another level of detail...
No all phones but yes some modern phones can do it, much like iPhone.
They have demo'ed a video call but right now the offer is going to be messaging with a view to offer voice at some point in the future with some low bandwidth data.
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1cxfqj4/spacex_spacex_on_x_video_first_video_call_on_x/
Its unknown how many of these plans relay on full fat next gen Starlink satellites that will be launched on Starship.
The original plan was for 1100km but SpaceX applied to revise the license to mostly 525-535km with a few between 604 and 614km. The satellites have also got bigger: 3.64->20m² antenna area. Combining that with the low bit rate allows slow communication with the small low power antennas in a cell phone. One of the costs is that a slow cell phone uses a similar share of the available resources as a bigger more powerful terminal communicating much faster.
As I understand it, only some of the Starlink satellites are equipped to do direct-to-cell, and they are in the very lowest orbits (working from memory here, something like 300km or so?).
It's definitely on the very edge of normal mobile phone capability, and I'm guessing that the quality of service won't be what we have come to expect - hence the "messaging first, then voice and data later" implementation, I think. Don't expect huge data rates.
GJC
"Have I got this right, a standard mobile phone can transmit a strong enough signal to be picked up by a starlink satellite orbiting at say -checks Wikipedia- 1100 km??"
Just spent 20 minutes plowing through numbers, I'm mildly confused and quite likely wrong, but I think the situation might be something like. The original plan was to put the Starlink satellites at 1100km, but they later decided that lower orbits were better -- presumably to reduce latency and/or the number of signals that might be contending for service at any given time. Anyway, they currently appear to have something like 3800 satellites orbiting in multiple shells at altitudes between 520 and 570 km. They do plan to use lower orbits for at least one later group.
From a signal strength point of view, there's not that much difference between 550 and 1150 km -- 6db I think. But half the latency.
Then there's the fact that it's only 550 (or whatever) km if the satellite is directly overhead. The further it is from directly overhead, the greater the distance
Anyway, I expect that the 2 or 3 watt output from a cellphone probably can make it 500 km or so if background noise is low and there's a satellite near overhead. But I wouldn't be surprised that you really did have to hold the phone just right to make a call.
And in the case of the Ukraine, I wonder how hard it would be for Russia to jam the cell phone channels.
Starlink DtC speeds here,
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/11/starlinks-direct-to-cell-4g-mobile-via-satellite-service-achieves-global-cover.html
Related documents released in 2022 stated that the DtC system can provide “theoretical peak speeds of up to either” 3Mbps or 7.2Mbps on upload (Earth-to-Space) over 1.4MHz or 5MHz bandwidth channels per beam, respectively, and up to either 4.4Mbps or 18.3Mbps on the downlink (Space-to-Earth) over the same bandwidth channels per beam using LTE (4G) technology.
And some info on the emergency usage during hurricane recovery efforts,
Starlink recently gave all of this a much more robust test when, during October 2024, they enabled the text messaging feature to provide free emergency SMS texting for hurricane victims in the USA. Despite not having officially launched, the service succeeded in connecting to 27,000+ 4G mobiles in affected areas, resulting in over 250,000 texts sent over the course of several days.
OneNZ is already up. T-Mobile in testing
I think it should be made available today to at least selected users in Ukraine even if it means different phones and/or SIM's and carrying traffic to NZ/USA where providers are already operational
Could give an additional edge on the battlefield. Maybe as big as regular starlink
$100 android phone alternatives to Iridium texting
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