Royal Caribbean Asks FCC To "Expeditiously" Approve Starlink On Cruise Ships

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Brian.D

And, who will profit from beaming into open waters where there are very few users? Pretty much all space based internet access is spot beamed to high population centers, not for the occasional ocean cruiser.

This is true for Dish and Inmarsat, which have satellites in geosynchronous orbit. These use spot beams to focus their service areas. Inmarsat does have almost global coverage though, but with gaps mid-Pacific and near the poles.

Globalstar uses low-earth-orbit satellites in a near-polar orbit, so the satellites orbit over the entire earth except near the poles. But they don't have global coverage because their satellites must be within range of an earth-station gateway in order to provide communications.

Iridium has satellites in low-earth-orbit with inter-satellite radio links so mid-ocean coverage is possible -- the satellites pass data from one to the next until one of them is within range of an earth-station. The Iridium orbits do cover the polar areas.

Starlink is currently more like Globalstar, requiring that their low-earth-orbit satellites be in range of an earth-station (see their coverage map). But they have the capability of intra-satellite communications (like Iridium), using laser beams. This capability has not yet been turned on, but SpaceX says they are working on it. Starlink orbits do not have polar coverage.

[Mal Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Starlink orbits do not have polar coverage.

Starlink satellites appear to follow Great Circle runs up to 53.2 degrees N and S. Looks like Starlink should have mid-ocean coverage (and I'd guess pretty fast as long as you are not near a cruise ship) if/when they choose to turn it on.



It will be interesting if they add higher latitudes down the line. Northern Europe is currently cutoff, for example.

[GordMay]

June 14, 2022: SpaceX and OneWeb said they have reached a spectrum coordination plan [on June 13], that would enable their current and second-generation broadband megaconstellations to coexist.
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the companies asked the regulator to disregard any spectrum coordination issues, they had previously filed, against each other.

More ➥ https://spacenews.com/starlink-and-o...dination-plan/

And ➥ https://www.space.com/spacex-oneweb-...on-coexistence