FCC Approves Space-Based Texting Service From Lynk (techcrunch.com) 13
The FCC has approved Lynk's satellite-to-phone connectivity service that will allow people to send and receive texts via satellites in space. According to TechCrunch, all that's left is "selecting a mobile network partner to bring it to market here in the States." From the report: Lynk demonstrated a direct satellite-to-phone (and back) emergency connectivity service late last year with its test orbital cell tower. Far from an orbital broadband connection or a legacy satellite band that has you pointing your phone at an invisible dot in the sky, Lynk would provide intermittent (think every half hour or so) 2-way SMS service via ordinary cellular bands that just happen to reach orbit. It's intended for emergencies, check-ins from the back country, and spreading information in places where networks are down, such as disaster zones.
It's not easy to send a text to or from an antenna moving several thousand miles per hour, and CEO Charles Miller confirmed that it took a few years for them to make it happen. So when major companies say they're working on it, he doesn't feel too much heat. "That's the benefit of having invented the tech five years ago: There's a bunch of hard things that no one else has done yet. I'm not saying they can't, just that they haven't yet," he told me. "We validated this and patented it in 2017. We did it from space yesterday and the day before -- we have the world's only active cell tower in space."
Of course, you could have a thousand of them and it wouldn't matter unless you have regulatory approval and partners in the mobile space. That's the next step for Lynk, and although they have 15 contracts spanning 36 countries around the world and are preparing for commercial launch, the United States FCC is the "gold standard" for this kind of testing and validation. That's not just because they have the best facilities -- the FCC approval process is also the de facto battleground where companies attempt to run interference on one another. [...] Today's order approves Lynk's satellite services to operate in general, having showed that they will not interfere with other services, radio bands, and so on. A separate approval will be needed when Lynk finds a partner to go to market with -- but the more difficult and drawn out question of safety and interference is already answered.
It's not easy to send a text to or from an antenna moving several thousand miles per hour, and CEO Charles Miller confirmed that it took a few years for them to make it happen. So when major companies say they're working on it, he doesn't feel too much heat. "That's the benefit of having invented the tech five years ago: There's a bunch of hard things that no one else has done yet. I'm not saying they can't, just that they haven't yet," he told me. "We validated this and patented it in 2017. We did it from space yesterday and the day before -- we have the world's only active cell tower in space."
Of course, you could have a thousand of them and it wouldn't matter unless you have regulatory approval and partners in the mobile space. That's the next step for Lynk, and although they have 15 contracts spanning 36 countries around the world and are preparing for commercial launch, the United States FCC is the "gold standard" for this kind of testing and validation. That's not just because they have the best facilities -- the FCC approval process is also the de facto battleground where companies attempt to run interference on one another. [...] Today's order approves Lynk's satellite services to operate in general, having showed that they will not interfere with other services, radio bands, and so on. A separate approval will be needed when Lynk finds a partner to go to market with -- but the more difficult and drawn out question of safety and interference is already answered.
Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe this means that yet another company will be able to track your location. Probably much, much more roughly than with cell towers, though. Of course, if your GPS is on, it might relay that through with the message. Nothing mentioned about that.
More info on the service https://lynk.world/our-technol... [lynk.world]
It is not clear if the user will get a RESPONSE from the service, letting you know that your message eventually/finally went through. Also not clear would be if you can send any message you want, or just some list of pre-defined messages and with or without location.
And I suspect this would be yet another add-on to your plan, charging a monthly fee, whether you use it or not. I imagine only a very small number of people would opt for that. Would be great if it only charged you if you used it (if that is even feasible). Lots of unknowns, but interesting/promising stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
The cost will depend very much on how you intend to use it. If it's only for very occasional use when you have an emergency away from cell coverage, it might be quite cheap. If you just want to text when you have no bars and send dozens or hundreds, it will cost more.
Might be interesting for certain sensors and similar embedded systems. Many of them still use SMS because it's more energy efficiency than connecting to a server, and 2G coverage tends to be better than later versions in countries that still ha
Re: (Score:2)
>"The cost will depend very much on how you intend to use it. If it's only for very occasional use when you have an emergency away from cell coverage, it might be quite cheap. "
I guess we have to wait and see. I believe this is probably just a more convenient alternative to those existing services where you have to buy a "special"/separate device to carry with you for emergency use (for things like outdoor sports in remote areas, or if you plan to drive in very, very remote places).
>"Might be interes
Re: (Score:3)
Huawei announced their first device supporting satellite comms a few weeks ago, but didn't say anything about how much the service would cost.
Then Apple announced theirs and said each phone will come with 2 years services included in the price, with further years TBD. Most likely waiting to see what it costs them on average per phone, before setting a price.
Re: (Score:2)
I have often thought that some public, low-frequency bandwidth for long-distance use by consumers would be useful. In remote areas where cell towers at multi-Gz would be too expensive to cover due to needing so many towers and ground connections. An order of magnitude fewer of tall, low-freq towers could provide some amount of data coverage. And they can use the same long-haul frequencies as their backbone and solar/batteries for power, so they would need no ground infrastructure at all. Sure, it would be slow (think text-only SMS), but it is better than nothing.
It is not quite that simple because low enough frequencies for ground wave propagation or skip off of the ionosphere require a physically large antenna for efficiency which is not compatible with small form factors. High frequencies have small aperture antennas by choice but have high efficiency, with the phased array antennas used by Starlink being a good example of how the aperture can be made large for higher gain. Low frequencies with an antenna suitable for a phone would have both a small aperture an
Re: (Score:2)
And I suspect this would be yet another add-on to your plan, charging a monthly fee
You can buy satellite messengers right now. Garmin inReach bundles them with search-and-rescue subscription, but you can also buy pure messaging from Zoleo. It's priced at 50 cents per message with $25 per month minimum subscription (giving you 50 messages).
Two years from now they might get customers (Score:1)
Re: Texts? (Score:1)
Digital data over radio wave? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My grandfather worked on that during WW2. It was all very sensitive and secret back then. A century later? Not so much. The CEO claiming that they can do something their competitors cant⦠that made me laugh.
I suspect the difficulty the CEO was referring to was getting existing hardware to handle the Doppler shift when it was not designed for that.
Invented five years ago? (Score:2)
Guess the guy isn't a ham. We have been sending texts through satellites, including our own small satellites, the space shuttle, MIR, and ISS for decades!