FCC Chair: Mobile Dead Spots Will End When Space-Based and Ground Comms Merge (theregister.com) 21
Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel outlined a vision for universal connectivity last week that merges satellite and ground-based networks. The FCC recently became the first regulator to establish a framework for supplemental coverage from space (SCS). "Satellites may be in our skies, but they are the anchor tenant in our communications future," said Rosenworcel, calling for seamless integration of fiber, cellular, wireless, and satellite infrastructure into a unified network. The vision comes as the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program recently ended due to funding depletion.
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LLVM [llvm.org] tubes [wikipedia.org]?
I guess if your vacuum-tube-powered computer is named "Norway" and you've got the LLVM toolchain working on it, more power to you (and your computer too!).
Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
This from the agency that blocked Starlink at every turn? The agency that reneged on its rural broadband deal with SpaceX and gave $42 billion to telcos who haven't hooked up even one person to the internet. Wait, I take that back. The AT&T and Verizon C-suite managed to get Starlink subscriptions on their yacht, plus the yacht itself, with that money.
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Old habits die hard. The FCC is always looking for that golden deal with a large carrier/telco/content provider for that semi-retired position that pays 7 figures.
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Lain is going to have a field day. (Score:2)
Don't hold your breath... (Score:3)
Satellites may solve rural cell connectivity, but they won't fix urban dead spots. I have multiple dead zones within a few miles of my home in a mid-sized town in a major metro area. They are often only a 1/4mi or so large, but it's enough to drop or degrade calls if you are driving. Satellite won't fix that because the switchover time isn't going to be anywhere near fast enough to handle short urban dead zones while keeping calls alive.
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First, how do you know what the switchover time will be in the future? It's dependent on a whole bunch of parameters. It's quite possible a large number of solutions can emerge to that. For example, the phone knows your location and can, in collaboration with other phones, map out where all the deadzones are. Then, when you're near a deadzone it can start the switchover process early.
Switchover times irrelevant when non-mobile (Score:2)
If my home, workplace, or place I go shopping is in a cell-phone dead zone, failover to satellite should work as long as I can get a signal.
On the other hand, if I'm in a basement or a faraday-cage-of-a-building, I'm probably not going to get a signal from either a cell tower or a satellite. Fortunately, picocells and phone-over-internet (wifi) are real things.
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One tel-co here, started including femto-cells inside their SOHO/home gateways, then suddenly stopped. So the basement garage, is still a dead zone.
On the other hand, pico-cells have been installed in new train/road tunnels for the last 20 years.
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They've moved on from pico cells in tunnels in most places. The current tech is "leaky feeder cables", that basically act like one long antenna along the length of the tunnel.
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There are solutions for that already, it's just not a priority to have that in those places by whoever owns the facility.
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There are several locations around Los Angeles (when I'm driving) that I lose both 5G internet on my phone, and my SiriusXM car radio losing connection. I can think of two that are open air, with no big buildings or wiring around, so I'm wondering how these dead zones can be fixed. Seems like some sort of interference in the ground. I have no other explanation. Bueller?
Re: Don't hold your breath... (Score:2)
Trees frequently cause me to lose SiriusXM signal. For example on highway 17 in CA near Santa Cruz. A particularly accident prone 2 lane windy road, on which you really want to be able to make calls if you get into one. There are many cell dead spots on it, too.
Nowhere to run to baby (Score:2)
Nowhere to hide.
Satellites: the anchor tenant in our coms future (Score:2)
That's why the FCC shut Starlink out of the Affordable Connectivity Program.
Not really (Score:2)
Maybe low bandwidth uplinks and hi-ish bandwidth downlinks, but not the same kind of full duplex connection you get from a tower.
Typical range to a tower...maybe 10km or less.
Typical range to a satellite...500km or more. That's 2500x less SNR from your wimpy little phone at the satellite than at the cell tower, for those in the audience who aren't yet disembodied energy beings untethered from the constraints of the physical realm.
Remember (Score:2)
Those guys moved to those radio dead spot mountains because they claimed they were sensitive to EM waves? This will come as an unpleasant surprise to them. Actually, they are already getting hit with EM waves from satellites, and natural sources, but Shhh, don't tell them that. :>