By: unix_joe
As a regular Iridium user, this is an amazing development. I wonder if it will work globally, or if it will be georestricted to the carrier's coverage map.
Some countries send authorities when you connect to a satellite constellation that is inconveniently not under their control.
By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/#comment-10440738">David Adams</a>.
Wow, I just took a look at the pricing. Well, I have to agree with your conclusions.
findmespot.com/en-us/products-services/spot-x
Nothing about it seems to sensible for basic users.
$200 device cost (on sale) is too high.
$15/mo is high. for the cheapest plan.
$30 activation is high. Obviously the intention is to punish users who don't want/need the service every month.
Only 20 text message in the basic plan is too low.
That's really not affordable for the little you get in return.
By: David Adams
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/#comment-10440713">Alfman</a>.
My son was interested in one of the emergency beacons, like the SPOT or inReach, so I'd done a little bit of research on them, which prompted me to write this article. But we came to the same conclusion: After paying several hundred dollars for the device, it's hard to justify the monthly service expense unless you're working as a lumberjack or river guide or oil field roughneck and you're out in the back of beyond all the time.
By: David Adams
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/#comment-10440702">kurkosdr</a>.
Nobody has paid for roaming within the US in a long time, and my T-Mobile plan lets me roam in Canada and Mexico for free. I think that AT&T and Verizon require buying a special Canada and Mexico pass. Tmobile also already allows me to get 5GB of data and free texting in almost every country, so if they're going to start offering texting via satellite, it's natural that we'd expect it to either also be free or cost the same no matter where you are. I hope that it is always free (included in the premium tier plans) but I would gladly pay $.10 to be able to send the occasional text message when I'm out of terrestrial antenna range.
By: Alfman
David Adams,
<blockquote>Last week, at WWDC, Apple announced the next stage: in iOS 18, iMessage users will be able to send text messages over satellite, using the same Globalstar network as its SOS features. Initially at least, this feature is expected to be free. With this expansion, iPhone users will have the basic functionality of a SPOT or inReach device, without special hardware or a monthly fee. </blockquote>
I think emergency situations are a very good use case for satellite communications. And you are right when you said people don't want to pay a high monthly fee for a service they don't intend to use regularly "just in case". So if this could be bundled along with their their normal bill it could provide useful emergency services. Whether it's itemized or not, many of do pay a 911 fee for something we rarely ever use, but it's there for everyone to use just in case. And it doesn't have to be broadband or anything either, the bandwidth needed by text messages is absolutely minuscule.
Assuming all of this can be made to work reliably, and hopefully be available to everyone without any new subscriptions, then I think it's a good idea.
By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/#comment-10440702">kurkosdr</a>.
kurkosdr,
<blockquote>Americans are used to paying for roaming even inside their own country, but in the EU there were never roaming charges inside a country’s borders and recently inside EU borders.</blockquote>
Here in the US our last mile ISPs haven't kept pace with the rest of the world. When you normalize for cost, ours our extraordinarily high. Competition has proven successful at breaking down cost barriers for those fortunate enough to have a choice, but unfortunately our corporations managed to pass laws in many states protecting themselves from new competition. Such laws are completely asinine, but they have been extremely effective at killing off competition for many consumers. And it's no secret that many of us in the US live under monopolies and duopolies.
After being bought out by altice, our local broadband monopoly imposed very significant upload speed cuts on internet packages across the board....
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/24/22548774/optimum-altice-reduced-cable-speeds-upload-throttling
<blockquote>Internet service provider Optimum, owned by Altice USA, is dramatically reducing cable internet speeds for new subscribers starting on July 12th. For some Optimum Online plans, upload speeds will be cut from 35Mbps to as little as 5Mbps, Ars Technica writes.
The change impacts new customers still serviced by Optimum’s older, non-fiber network, and it will only impact current subscribers if they upgrade, downgrade, or otherwise change their service. Download speeds should remain the same, but you can see how upload speeds are slowed below:</blockquote>
The 35mbps upload speed we had for over a decade with the most basic internet package is now reduced to 5mbps. The 35mbps we had is only available in the 1gbps package going forward, which isn't even available in our area. Meanwhile we're paying over a hundred/mo and short of very expensive mobile/satellite there's zero home internet competitors. Even if we were willing to pay more for satellite internet to bypass the cable monopoly, the satellite internet services are oversubscribed and don't have nearly as much bandwidth available as physical networks do. Meanwhile the 5G carriers are nowhere close to deploying "mmwave" frequencies for the ultra high bandwidths they had promised and failed to deliver.
In short, not only do US consumers have to contend with some of the highest internet prices in the world, but for all the money we are paying our internet service is relatively poor. Even affordable internet subsidies for the poor got killed.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/31/24168853/pandemic-internet-subsidy-affordable-connectivity-program-ending
Unfortunately this is what happens when you let for profit corporations run things they way they want to.
By: kurkosdr
What I'm worried about is who will pay for this kind of roaming, especially in the EU where roaming is now free (and the relevant setting is enabled in most phones, even for data).
Americans are used to paying for roaming even inside their own country, but in the EU there were never roaming charges inside a country's borders and recently inside EU borders.