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A comment on SpaceX Has Launched Starlink's First Direct-to-Smartphone Satellites. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX Has Launched Starlink's First Direct-to-Smartphone... by simondotau on Sunday January 07, 2024 @09:02AM (#38901237)
Being able to send an SMS from deep in the Amazon or from Antarctica wasn’t “mostly solved 15 years ago”
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Re:SpaceX Has Launched Starlink's First Direct-to-Smartphone... by TheOtherHobbes on Sunday January 07, 2024 @09:39AM (#38901553)
Inmarsat has been offering that since at least 2008.
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Re:SpaceX Has Launched Starlink's First Direct-to-Smartphone... by inglor_cz on Sunday January 07, 2024 @10:48AM (#38902180)
Isn't an Inmarsat phone with antenna, like, 8x heavier and 4x more expensive than a not-very-fancy 5G smartphone? A SMS limited to 160 characters for half a dollar?

Standard 5G is a lot more efficient. The difference seems to me at least the same as between a steam train and an electric train.

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