Starlink

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TheGreenGoblin
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Starlink

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat May 29, 2021 5:59 am

Starlink's future may lie in the sky but its problems lie closer to earth.


https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 55982.html
Elon Musk’s Starlink space internet is running into an unusual adversary: trees.

The SpaceX satellite internet service entered beta testing in June 2020 for areas in high latitudes such as Seattle, but some users have been experiencing issues.

“We want to get Starlink but the sky above our house is almost completely covered with trees over 40 feet tall”, one user posted on the r/Starlink subreddit. “Is it possible to get Starlink to work in our area or are we just out of luck?”

Another expressed similar issues, asking for advice about using mounts to get the Starlink antenna six to 10 feet higher to get signal above the nearby trees, but potential masts “don't seem to appear to accommodate the dish”. One beta tester managed to get above the trees via a tripod mounted to the top of their roof, something that they described as an “idiotic contraption”.

In order to set up a Starlink internet connection users require a £439 satellite dish and pay an £84 monthly fee, but also need a direct line of sight between the dish and the satellite, as well as a 100-degree cone with a 25 degree elevation minimum around the centre of the dish.

This means that trees, neighbouring buildings, and other obstacles provide a severe challenge - with one user installing his dish nearly five meters above his chimney.

“If you could see the connection between a Starlink satellite and your Starlink, it would look like a single beam between the two objects. As the satellite moves, the beam also moves. The area within which this beam moves is the ‘field of view’”, the Starlink website explains.

“Some obstructions are worse than others. Obstructions low in the sky will cause more outages because satellites are in this area of the sky more frequently. The best guidance we can give is to install your Starlink at the highest elevation possible where it is safe to do so, with a clear view of the sky.” Starlink also notes that “a single tree” can interrupt users’ service.
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Re: Starlink

#2 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:02 pm

Hawaiian Airlines to offer free SpaceX Starlink Wi-Fi

http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hawai ... index.html

(CNN) — Hawaiian Airlines plans to offer free Wi-Fi service through SpaceX's Starlink, the airline announced Monday.
The satellite-based internet service will be available as early as next year on Hawaiian Airlines' transpacific fleet, making it the first major airline to offer Starlink.
The service, created by Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX, uses a constellation of satellites in a low orbit to decrease latency, or the time it takes data to make the trip between user and satellite.
The airline said it expects to start installation on select aircraft in 2023 for flights between the islands and the continental US, Asia and Oceania.
The service will be installed on the airlines' Airbus A330 and A321neo aircraft and on its incoming Boeing 787-9s. Hawaiian said the service will not be available on the Boeing 717 aircraft used for short flights between the Hawaiian islands.
Peter Ingram, Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO, promised "the best connectivity experience available in the air," in a statement.
"We waited until technology caught up with our high standards for guest experience, but it will be worth the wait," Ingram said in a news release.
"Our guests can look forward to fast, seamless and free Wi-Fi to complement our award-winning onboard Hawaiian hospitality."
Starlink recently made headlines when SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk sent a shipment of user terminals to Ukraine. The shipment was in response to a tweet from Ukraine's vice prime minister asking Musk for assistance in maintaining connectivity as Russia launched its invasion.
Musk followed up with a warning to Ukrainians to use the service with caution to minimize the risk of being targeted by Russian forces.

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Re: Starlink

#3 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:32 pm

SpaceX says 5G expansion would make Starlink ‘unusable’ for most Americans

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/tech/spa ... index.html

New York
CNN Business

SpaceX, Dish Network and other 5G providers are locked in a heated battle over radio frequencies, which SpaceX says it needs for its orbital internet service, Starlink, and which Dish says it needs for its own customers.

SpaceX is claiming that, if federal regulators allow 5G wireless networks to use a certain band of spectrum, it can cause widespread outages for its Starlink internet customers. Spectrum refers to a range of radio frequencies, and federal regulators closely guard what companies are allowed to use which frequencies so that signals don’t interfere with one another.

In a statement, SpaceX targeted Dish Network, which, though primarily known as a satellite TV company, also has a cellular network. SpaceX claims that Dish has attempted to “mislead” the Federal Communications Commission, which allocates spectrum use across telecom companies, and put forward a “faulty analysis” in an attempt to prove that allowing Dish to expand its 5G network would not impact Starlink users.

When reached for comment, Dish said only that its “expert engineers are evaluating SpaceX’s claims in the filing.”

At the root of the standoff is the 12 GHz band, a slice of radio frequencies that are primarily used for services like Starlink and its satellite internet competitor OneWeb.

In a fiery letter to the FCC, SpaceX’s senior director of satellite policy, David Goldstein, writes that “no reasonable engineer” could believe the studies put forward by Dish and its allies. He also urges the FCC to investigate whether the Dish Network and RS Access, another wireless provider, “filed intentionally misleading reports.”

SpaceX conducted its own analysis that it claims “corrects some of the egregious assumptions” made in Dish and RS Access’ studies.

“If Dish’s lobbying efforts succeed, our study shows that Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans,” SpaceX said in a statement.

The 5Gfor12GHz Coalition — a group of industry stakeholders that includes wireless providers such as Dish — said its engineers were also reviewing the filing “in depth” and “remain committed to working in good faith with the FCC and stakeholders to ensure that the American public is able to reap the immense benefits of 5G services in this band.”

The Coalition pointed to a study carried out by an independent firm that found 99.85% of customers using Starlink and similar services “will experience 0 harmful interference with 5G.”

The FCC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, called this case “one of the most complex dockets we have” at a House hearing in March.

It’s “going to take a lot of technical work to make sure that the airwaves can accommodate all those different uses without harmful interference,” she said. “I can assure you that we have our best engineers assessing this right now.”

Spectrum rights battles like this one are nothing new. Satellite and telecom companies frequently battle amongst each other for what they view as the most desirable bands of spectrum. The current standoff over the 12 GHz band of spectrum has been going on for more than year, and it’s a separate issue than 5G battles over C-band spectrum or a recent scare over interference with airplanes.

Dish has previously lashed out at SpaceX, saying its plans to put Starlink terminals on moving vehicles is illegal and could interfere with Dish’s satellite TV customers.

Dish had roughly 8.2 million wireless subscribers as of May and hopes to dramatically expand that business. Public filings revealed earlier this year that SpaceX has more than 400,000 Starlink customers worldwide.

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Re: Starlink

#4 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:42 pm

SpaceX gets approval to bring Starlink internet to airplanes, RVs

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/tech/spa ... index.html

SpaceX’s satellite-based internet business, Starlink, now has approval from the US government to expand its service to planes, ships, automobiles, RVs and other mobile vehicles.

The move sets the company up to expand its customer base, which so far has been focused solely on providing roughly $100-per-month internet services to homes, mostly in areas that aren’t serviced by traditional ground-based internet service. It has hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the world.

Now, the company is likely to begin rolling out service to commercial airlines, possibly beginning with Hawaiian Airlines, which signed a deal with SpaceX in April saying it planned to bring complimentary Starlink services to some jets.

The regulatory approval, handed down from the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, also grants SpaceX the ability to expand its service to trains, ships, and other vehicles, opening up a broad swath of potential corporate customers. The company has also already been advertising its services for RV drivers.


SpaceX says 5G expansion would make Starlink 'unusable' for most Americans
Traditionally, airlines, ships and trains have relied on satellites in geosynchronous orbit, a band of orbit that lies more than 22,000 miles away, provided by companies such as ViaSat. SpaceX’s Starlink takes a different approach to beaming internet from space by putting thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit, or just a few hundred miles off the ground. The company says this offers lower latency, or lag times, for its service.

It’s not clear how Starlink’s mobile services may be priced, but SpaceX does already market its service directly to businesses.

“With more than double the antenna capability of Starlink, Starlink Business delivers faster internet speeds and higher throughput,” the company states on its website. “$500/mo with a one-time hardware cost of $2,500.”

SpaceX also rolled out Starlink for RVs earlier this year for $135 per month, though prior to this week’s FCC approval, the service focused on providing internet to RVs only when they are stationary.

For those hoping to have internet access rolled out directly to their cars, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter last year that likely won’t be the case, saying “Not connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, as our terminal is much too big. This is for aircraft, ships, large trucks & RVs.”

The FCC’s decision also marks yet another chapter in an ongoing battle over spectrum rights. Spectrum refers to a range of radio frequencies, and federal regulators closely guard what companies are allowed to use which frequencies so that signals don’t interfere with one another.

Companies including ViaSat, Dish Network, and wireless company RS Access petitioned against the FCC’s decision.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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Re: Starlink

#5 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:37 pm

SpaceX and T-Mobile want to eliminate ‘dead zones’ using satellites

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/tech/spa ... index.html

New York
CNN Business

SpaceX and T-Mobile want to beam cell service to “most places in the US,” including some of the most remote areas of the country that traditionally have not been touched by wireless connectivity.

The idea, which the companies plan to roll out in beta testing by the end next year, is to use SpaceX’s satellite-based internet business, Starlink, to provide an “extra layer” of connectivity to T-Mobile phones. T-Mobile is also offering reciprocal roaming to cellular carriers in other countries as well, in the hopes that Starlink’s global reach will enable people to use their phones for messaging around the planet.

“This is an open invitation to carriers around the world, please get in touch with us,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during an event announcing the plan.

The new service will rely primarily on “version 2,” or V2, Starlink satellites, according to Musk. Those are not expected to begin launching before next year.

“To provide this service, the companies will create a new network, broadcast from Starlink’s satellites using T-Mobile’s midband spectrum nationwide. This true satellite-to-cellular service will provide nearly complete coverage almost anywhere a customer can see the sky,” according to a T-Mobile press release.

Satellite-based cellular service through Starlink will also work with phones on the market today, Musk said.

Essentially, the goal is to bring about the “end of mobile dead zones,” T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said during an event announcing the partnership at SpaceX’s facilities in South Texas. But it will only be available to people on T-Mobile plans, though Sievert said the “most popular plans at T-Mobile” will get the service at no additional charge. The companies said that at first, service will likely be limited to text-based messages, with video and voice calls occasionally getting through. The companies plan to upgrade the service later.

SpaceX denied nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies
“You might just have to wait half an hour, maybe, for the thing to go through, but it should still work from early on,” Musk added. “It’s not a substitute for ground cell stations, because ground cell stations especially in urban and suburban areas will definitely be superior to what we’re talking about here. This is really meant to provide basic coverage to areas that are currently completely dead.”

T-Mobile says it estimates that “well over half a million square miles” of the US are “untouched by cell signals,” according to a press release.

Musk billed it as a mission to “save lives,” as it could provide people with connectivity in emergency situations, such as when hiking in remote areas.

It’s well known that large swaths of the United States don’t have internet access or cell service. While cell service relies on towers that beam connectivity across certain areas, and traditional broadband connections require webs of underground cables, SpaceX’s Starlink has taken a different approach to connectivity. Its services relies on hives of satellites just a few hundred miles above Earth that work in tandem to beam connectivity.

It remains to be seen how effective the partnership will be and how many wireless customers will benefit. Starlink is also still a new service with only about half a million users so far.

The news comes just two weeks after federal regulators announced that SpaceX would not receive the nearly $900 million in subsidies that the company was awarded in December, citing the fact that its satellite-based service is “still developing technology” and the company “failed to demonstrate that [it] could deliver the promised service.”

The Federal Communications Commission, which oversaw the subsidy program, said there were several reasons it decided to deny SpaceX’s subsidies, including that recent data that “indicate that Starlink’s speeds have been declining from the last quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022.”

PP

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