Amazon plans satellite internet system

[docj]

So now we'll have the battle of the billionaires--Bezos vs Musk to see who can be the fist to launch thousands of low altitude satellites and create a world-wide internet system.  Maybe we'll even see space warfare between the competing satellites! https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/amazon-is-planing-to-launch-thousands-of-satellites-to-offer-high-speed-internet/

[Zulu]

I'm still waiting for the monorails and home helipads I was promised as a kid.

[docj]

26 minutes ago, Zulu said:

I'm still waiting for the monorails and home helipads I was promised as a kid.

😂😂  Me too!

[Dutch_12078]

45 minutes ago, Zulu said:

I'm still waiting for the monorails and home helipads I was promised as a kid.

Not me, they wouldn't leave room enough for me to park my flying car!

[docj]

I can't help but chuckle when I think that Amazon might combine package delivery with its satellites.  With a space-based warehouse, packages could be routed to satellites which would "target" them on your home! 😂

[Dutch_12078]

1 hour ago, docj said:

I can't help but chuckle when I think that Amazon might combine package delivery with its satellites.  With a space-based warehouse, packages could be routed to satellites which would "target" them on your home! 😂

That should work! You'll just need to stick one of these in your backyard pool... 

[Twotoes]

So maybe we could get satellite phones like in Europe and Asia and ditch cell towers, or maybe we will have phone service with satellite wifi. 

[docj]

31 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

So maybe we could get satellite phones like in Europe and Asia and ditch cell towers, or maybe we will have phone service with satellite wifi. 

Although satellite phones are available all over the world, cell phones in Europe and Asia are tower-based, just like ours.

[Twotoes]

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

[chirakawa]

8 hours ago, Twotoes said:

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

You weren't paying very close attention.

[Dutch_12078]

9 hours ago, Twotoes said:

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

Would it surprise you to know that Samsung alone shipped about 15 million cell phones to the EU in just the first quarter of 2018? That was about half of the combined ~30 million shipped by the major vendors.

This article is primarily about Huawei and Xiaomi in the EU market, but the statistics are interesting. Both companies are huge in Asia not surprisingly, although Samsung is the sales leader there as well.

https://qz.com/1275570/never-mind-the-us-huawei-and-xiaomi-are-huge-in-the-eu/

[docj]

12 hours ago, Twotoes said:

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

Current generation US cell phones are "world phones" capable of operation in most countries.  A couple of years ago we were using our Verizon phones in London and I can go to my Google location history and see which museums and other places we were at on a minute by minute basis!

[Dutch_12078]

13 hours ago, Twotoes said:

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

You never saw anyone inside a building using a mobile as they call it over there? Sat phones don't work without a clear view of the sky.

[RV_]

I lived in Europe (Spangdahlem AB Germany) for seven years from Jan 1990-Jan 1997. Never saw a single Sat phone. I sold Satellite dishes and cards as well as dial up ISP services there when we used an octopus and 50 US Robotics modems on one wall hissing and screeching and heating up the NOC uncomfortably hot. We still used bricks but cell phones were coming in for key personnel then trickled down just after I retired. No satellite phones then save some special folks.

 

[NDBirdman]

14 hours ago, RV_ said:

I lived in Europe (Spangdahlem AB Germany) for seven years from Jan 1990-Jan 1997.

We miss living there, Bitburg AB.  Was there '90 - '94.  Was a sad time helping close down.  Sure enjoyed BernCastle, spent a lot of time there.  We did a lot of *wine probing* up and down that river.

[RV_]

Hey we were there together. After Bitburg closed the town nearly went bankrupt. They gouged Military for housing charging twice to four times what they charged Germans for rentals, and many were substandard thast no Germans would rent. I was that Satellite card and hardware provider "The Satellite Connection" and we opened our new Internet dial up provider service, SilynTek/Internet connection, and our offices were just outside the small gate facing Spang's direction at, The Internet/Satellite Connection, Bitburger Str.#94, 54634 Bitburg/Moetsch. We were the first private ISP in that region buying bandwidth direct from Deutsche Telekom. I left in 97 and they became Surf 1, the largest ISP in Germany and then went bankrupt about five years after I sold out as CEO when I returned from overseas. Ahh, the good old days. I ran CATM at Spang among other things, and designed/supervised construction of that gel backstop indoor range there. TSgt Joel Layton at Bit CATM was a good friend.

We split the base in half and gave the airfield sid back to the Germans but kept the housing BX/Commissary/audio photo club. All personnel lived on base with Bitburg's housing added to Spang's including airman and civilians.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by RV_

[Carlos]

On 4/4/2019 at 2:54 PM, docj said:

Maybe we'll even see space warfare between the competing satellites!

PPV, so they can subsidize launching more satellites?

On 4/4/2019 at 8:16 PM, Twotoes said:

docj I have been all over Europe and Asia and everyone I have been with had a sat phone. Never even saw a cell phone overseas. 

Those were all cell phones.  It's still very expensive to make sat phone calls, and the phones are terribly expensive and fairly bulky.  Source:  Had one up until a couple years ago.

The planned systems from Amazon, Facebook, and SpaceX won't be wifi; they will operate in the 12-18GHz and 26-40GHz bands, requiring their own receivers and outdoor antennas.  These frequencies don't penetrate walls and other objects.

 

[RV_]

Perzactly Carlos.

[NDBirdman]

23 hours ago, RV_ said:

Hey we were there together. After Bitburg closed the town nearly went bankrupt. They gouged Military for housing charging twice to four times what they charged Germans for rentals, and many were substandard thast no Germans would rent.

Heard that through the grapevine.  We lived in Bitburg for a while, rent was nuts!  We moved into a town bout 30 clicks down the road in a little village called Peffingen.  Was a small clickish town, but the time we were *in* with the village residence,  we had to move back to the states.  Made some very  good friends there, joined the fishing club which went through our place and had a blast!  Our home, and it was a very huge place on 100 acres or so, cost almost half what our apartment rent in Bitburg was.  Miss that place, was a once in a lifetime experience.  Got to enjoy some german way of life, experience german farming, land lord was burger meister and dairy cattle farmer.  Paid alot of our rent by working the fields and milking cows, that was a trip!

Edited April 7, 2019 by NDBirdman

[jblo]

Just had my 450 shocks delivered to me by Amazon Drone--not....whatever happened to that, just a publicity stunt?

[Dutch_12078]

My understanding is that Prime Air, the department that includes drone delivery development, is still working on the program. Regulatory approvals seem to be the primary holdup I believe.

[rbertalotto]

Looks like SpaceX just launched the first 60 low orbit satellites. I guess this whole massive broadband deployment is going to happen....

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/24/spacexs-first-60-starlink-broadband-satellites-deployed-in-orbit/

[Technomadia]

Yes, very exciting to see SpaceX make their claim in this space.  We were actually on the press conference with Elon prior to the launch, and shared in our write-up the outlook for mobility in terms of RV use:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/spacex-launches-first-sixty-starlink-satellites-building-a-massive-global-broadband-constellation/

[whj469]

The more the merrier. I like competition. I see that they are allowing Sprint and T-Mobile to merge and then there will be three.

Edited May 28, 2019 by whj469

[Carlos]

This will be totally different from cellular networks, and they don't replace each other.  What I wonder is how the cell networks will collaborate with these new networks to provide transitional services between them.  A collaboration between Amazon/SpaceX and Verizon/AT&T could provide a great seamless experience for users no matter where they go.  The equipment will be very different however.