iPhone 13 to have LEO satellite coms?

[solana707]

https://9to5mac.com/2021/08/29/kuo-i...t-cell-signal/

[Dsanduril]

Yep, they’ve widely publicized that they’re going to start scanning all your iCloud photos for child pornography and communicating the results to law enforcement officers (LEO)

On a serious note, I don’t think we even have to ask this question:

It is also unclear if satellite features would be free, like GPS, or would come with associated usage charges

Not having to buy a separate piece of equipment for satellite comms would be pretty nice.

[bcboomer]

So whose sats are they going to connect with?
If I understand correctly they are claiming to communicate using satellites without a satellite antenna

[shimari]

The article claims Globalstar for voice and txt. Sadly, no data.

[bcboomer]

Amazing leap in technology if they can actually send and receive via a satellite.
I'm pretty skeptical.

[Dr. D]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

Amazing leap in technology if they can actually send and receive via a satellite.
I'm pretty skeptical.

Why so?

GPS signals at the surface of the earth are below the noise level. Great signal processing on a single chip pull the data out of the noise. The Globalstar satellites have a heck of a lot more processing power to pull out the signal from the chips on the surface. The SPOT devices work fine.

[Networker]

Ok boomer. You do realize that’s how any other satellite dish down to an IOT enabled sat connection works.

[bcboomer]

I'm not a techie. Do Globalstar satellites have enough power to send a signal to a cell phone? And, if they do, how can a cell phone possibly have enough power to reach a satellite?

[jmh2002]

Phones like this that are a combination of cellphones and satellite phones have been available in Europe for at least 15 years.

When I first looked at them the coverage served mostly Europe, Africa, and the Middle East if I remember correctly.

They were an interesting option way back then, when cellular coverage wasn't as wide spread, roaming was mega expensive, and local sim cards / dual sim phones weren't very common.

Much of that has changed now, at least in that part of the world. It's also very common in Europe for phones to be dual sim models.

[Networker]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Phones like this that are a combination of cellphones and satellite phones have been available in Europe for at least 15 years.

When I first looked at them the coverage served mostly Europe, Africa, and the Middle East if I remember correctly.

They were an interesting option way back then, when cellular coverage wasn't as wide spread, roaming was mega expensive, and local sim cards / dual sim phones weren't very common.

Much of that has changed now, at least in that part of the world. It's also very common in Europe for phones to be dual sim models.

Sat coverage is just a function of its height/orbit and how many. The type of sat you described was an expensive stationary geo sat. Stays in the same spot always, cover a region and is costly. Low earth sats, as they come out, are deployed in the hundreds every launch and can cover more space due to their swarm deployments and ability to speak to each other vs ground stations only.

[solana707]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Phones like this that are a combination of cellphones and satellite phones have been available in Europe for at least 15 years.

When I first looked at them the coverage served mostly Europe, Africa, and the Middle East if I remember correctly.

They were an interesting option way back then, when cellular coverage wasn't as wide spread, roaming was mega expensive, and local sim cards / dual sim phones weren't very common.

Much of that has changed now, at least in that part of the world. It's also very common in Europe for phones to be dual sim models.

I believe all new iPhones are e-sim + physical sim thus dual SIM
this article says they will connect to LEO satellite, which are shoebox sized and afaik have many spread across a greater area, and at a lower orbit than older satellites

[solana707]

iridium satellites are 780km from earth surface, while starlink are 550km.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by Networker

Ok boomer.

Really? Hmmm

[Dr. D]

The Globalstar constellation is 24 low earth orbit satellites. They are NOT cubesats. They are bent pipes -- not much processing aboard (contrary to what I wrote above), but send what they collect to the ground for the processing to be done there.

[shimari]

An additional rumor about this topic is that a frequency band formerly allocated to satellite service is being reallocated to cellular service.

That makes more sense to me- journalist sees a frequency range supported. Google's the freq and sees it allocated to sat service; writes an article.

I guess we'll see in 2-3 weeks.