Elon Musk’s satellite network is about to revolutionize telecommunications
It’s been a long time coming, but SpaceX and T-Mobile have finally obtained FCC approval to launch a direct satellite-to-smartphone (Direct-to-Device, or D2D) telecommunications service, which could be a game changer.
Satellites in medium orbits (2,000 to 34,000 kilometers) or high orbits (more than 36,000 kilometers), mean round-trip latencies of around 280 milliseconds or 600 milliseconds respectively, which are too long for reasonable telecommunications. However, since the approval of the use of low Earth orbits (LEO, from 160 to 2,000 kilometers), latencies of 30 milliseconds or less can be achieved, which are good enough for reasonable use.
The idea is simple, but radical: turn satellites into base stations that communicate directly with our smartphones, without the need for terrestrial antennas or specialized equipment. SpaceX, with its Starlink Direct-to-Cell project, has led this revolution thanks to its interest in filling the capacity of the many rockets it needed to launch to obtain economies of scale, which has allowed…
