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A comment on FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services. Parent comment

Re:FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Serv... by walrus01 on Thursday March 29, 2018 @09:13PM (#16712800)
What you want is an Iridium 9575 handheld phone, or the model that they release when the Iridium NEXT constellation comes fully online and they start turning off the old satellites. This is not going to be for handheld satellite phones or things that weigh less than maybe 7-10 kilograms.
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Re:FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Serv... by lorenzhs on Friday March 30, 2018 @07:18AM (#16715208)
Yup, but apply the same thought to sailing boats and the GP’s point stands. Could be great for search & rescue (EPIRB is incredibly slow, this could maybe be used to build an alternative system?), but could also compromise the feeling of remoteness.
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Re:FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Serv... by walrus01 on Friday March 30, 2018 @08:16AM (#16715471)
GP is talking about hiking - big difference in a 300g satellite phone vs the size and weight of what you can mount on a 30' sailboat.
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Re:FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Serv... by lorenzhs on Friday March 30, 2018 @08:28AM (#16715537)
Yes obviously, but sailing is similarly remote from civilisation, you’re a small group with nobody else nearby. So the changes would be similar, except that it’s trivial to mount on a boat so the changes the GP was thinking about actually apply to that scenario. (But with a solar-powered battery-buffered LTE antenna with satellite backhaul, it could apply to hikers without them having to carry around an antenna)
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