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Old 12-14-2024, 11:22 AM   #1
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Starlink to Cell Phone

Starlink is going to provide coverage where there aren’t cell signals for texting. It will be from your phone to satellites and then to ground stations and on to the cell companies’ networks. The service will not eliminate cell towers but enhance the service where there are no cell signals.


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Old 12-14-2024, 11:54 AM   #2
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The service will not eliminate cell towers but enhance the service where there are no cell signals.
The construction of huge ugly cell phone towers are still required for the Starlink cellular phone service to work. Rather keep our beautiful scenic rural region where we reside as is. No thanks. We can live without. We don't want it to look like the industrial landscape of the cities. I believe that it is difficult for people whom reside in the cities to comprehend.

A Villa Grove, Colorado resident sums it up, "Cellular service is not a part of our life," Earing said. "I know for a lot of people it is. For people out in the city, they want to be connected all the time. We don’t want to be connected."

https://www.9news.com/article/news/l...8-2544681092c6
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Old 12-14-2024, 01:57 PM   #3
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The T-Mobile phone talks to the Starlink satellite which relays the signal to another satellite etc until it reaches a Starlink ground station where the signal is then sent to a partner operator network (T-Mobile) and T-Mobile sends it out on their towers.
How does that involve building new towers? All it means is that if everyone had a T-Mobile phone then no matter where they were they would have cell service providing there is a Starlink satellite in the sky.
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Old 12-14-2024, 02:58 PM   #4
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The T-Mobile phone talks to the Starlink satellite which relays the signal to another satellite etc until it reaches a Starlink ground station where the signal is then sent to a partner operator network (T-Mobile) and T-Mobile sends it out on their towers.
How does that involve building new towers? All it means is that if everyone had a T-Mobile phone then no matter where they were they would have cell service providing there is a Starlink satellite in the sky.
T-Mobile is working together with Starlink to build cell phone towers in our vast no cellphone service regions. It doesn't work without a cellphone tower somewhere to send the signal to the satellite. Got to have electrical power to the remote towers too where there is no infrastructure. The T-Mobile current coverage in my rectangular CO state. No cellphone service is in white. It sounds like an expensive project in rural regions for few users. We don't have enough folks to justify building a McDonalds.

Update...From further reading it appears that the new cell phone towers are the Starlink satellites.
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Old 12-14-2024, 03:55 PM   #5
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T-Mobile is working together with Starlink to build cell phone towers in our vast no cellphone service regions. It doesn't work without a cellphone tower somewhere to send the signal to the satellite. Got to have electrical power to the remote towers too where there is no infrastructure. The T-Mobile current coverage in my rectangular CO state. No cellphone service is in white. It sounds like an expensive project in rural regions for few users. We don't have enough folks to justify building a McDonalds.

Update...From further reading it appears that the new cell phone towers are the Starlink satellites.
Don't know what the source is that you clipped from, but it's not correct.

T-MO and Starlink are NOT building additional terrestrial cell towers, they're using cellular frequencies to relay connections to/from terrestrial handsets (cell phones) directly to and through the Starlink low earth orbit satellites that have the direct-to-cellular capability already installed at their time of manufacture.
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Old 12-26-2024, 09:53 AM   #6
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We signed up for the lottery to get on the T-Mobile "Beta" test of this service. As noted, here in Colorado, there are many areas not covered by cell towers and it would be nice to at least be able to text. It is supposed to work direct from the phone to the StarLink satellite without any cell towers. We camped in lower AZ last winter and had no cell coverage for weeks and our kids got a bit concerned (though we loved not getting any pesky sales calls). Hopefully, we get picked to test this out!
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Old 01-16-2025, 01:01 AM   #7
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Received notification today that the test has begun. Currently limited to text and 911.
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Old 01-16-2025, 10:20 AM   #8
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Yep, been testing it for about 9 months now. It's still a ways out from being 100% reliable, but that was the case for Starlink too when we first started testing it about 5 years ago. I would say free Meshtastic is still currently more reliable for "off grid" texting. In addition to T-Mobile, other celluar companies will soon be participating in this venture too. And BTW, Starlink now has limited data plans for as low as $10/month if you weren't aware this.

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Old 01-16-2025, 10:38 AM   #9
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Show us a Starlink plan in the USA for $10 a month. I'm on Starlink right now and don't see it listed.
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Old 01-16-2025, 12:20 PM   #10
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Yep, been testing it for about 9 months now. It's still a ways out from being 100% reliable, but that was the case for Starlink too when we first started testing it about 5 years ago. I would say free Meshtastic is still currently more reliable for "off grid" texting. In addition to T-Mobile, other celluar companies will soon be participating in this venture too. And BTW, Starlink now has limited data plans for as low as $10/month if you weren't aware this.

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How's that? They just announced the beta test about a month ago.
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Old 01-17-2025, 09:37 AM   #11
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How's that? They just announced the beta test about a month ago.
Product development testing precedes general public testing.

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/SpaceX.pdf

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Old 01-17-2025, 09:42 AM   #12
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Show us a Starlink plan in the USA for $10 a month. I'm on Starlink right now and don't see it listed.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-offers-cheapest-plan-yet-to-entice-inactive-users

Coming to US soon.

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Old 01-19-2025, 09:19 AM   #13
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interesting as it already seems to be in canada now. We live in a remote area where their is spotty service and lots of companies i know use it and are able to talk on their cell phones everywhere and nice and clear.
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Old 01-19-2025, 12:47 PM   #14
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interesting as it already seems to be in canada now. We live in a remote area where their is spotty service and lots of companies i know use it and are able to talk on their cell phones everywhere and nice and clear.
This is brand new technology to enable direct cell phone to Starlink satellite communication.

One has been able to indirectly use a cell phone with Wi-Fi connectivity, to a Starlink Wi-Fi router, to a Starlink satellite dish and then to the Starlink satellites to accomplish communication for over 5 years now. But of course, if you have a Starlink Wi-Fi router (or really any Wi-Fi router) and a Starlink satellite dish, you don't need a cell phone or a cellular plan at all to have this same communication capability. Any Android device having only Wi-Fi connectivity can provide this same communication capability for free...and what we have been doing for 5 years now.

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