Knichols2176 t1_iufsuva wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:08 AM

Reply to comment by Shrike99 in Amazon may have to turn to SpaceX for help launching its Starlink rival service by Soupjoe5

For literally old fashioned satellite calls. SOS. Lol. T mobile can’t offer what AST does and can’t be combined on a starlink satellite (which happens to have a third leg that’s just dead weight for balance). AST does not require any special equipment or software. T mobile does. Elon has tweeted that AST technology works. He must be intrigued. I’d think he’d want the best technology available right?

Shrike99 t1_iuh9nwq wrote on October 31, 2022 at 9:44 AM

>For literally old fashioned satellite calls. SOS.

Limited data rate, yes. But not comparable to old fashion satphones in the sense that you need specialized hardware to talk to a geo sat, and not limited to SOS (though that's certainly one of the more useful aspects).

>T mobile can’t offer what AST doesT mobile can’t offer what AST does

The only difference I can see is bandwidth. And while an individual AST sat likely has a lot more throughput due to it's size, I can't see them getting anywhere near Starlinks numbers though so bandwith over a given area is probably comparable.

If they did reach some deal to integrate directly into the Starlink sats then they'd face the exact same limitations TMobile are.

>can’t be combined on a starlink satellite

That's literally what they're doing though.

>AST does not require any special equipment or software. T mobile does.

SpaceX and TMobile both say otherwise. They say it will be compatible with existing 5G capable phones, and that as far as the phone will be able to tell a Starlink sat will appear indistinguishable from a cell tower.

AFAIK AST are using the exact same approach, just with a larger antenna.