How Elon Musks Starlink internet may come to smartphones
Friday, July 29, 2022 | Chimniii Desk
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has plans to expand the Starlink internet’s reach to smartphone users. The company, in a filing with the FCC, has expressed its intentions of adding the 2GHz frequency to the Starlink licence for use with “mobile users”, as per a report by PCMag.
In the filing, SpaceX tries to explain how Starlink’s coverage to 2GHz is going to benefit all Americans as they want connectivity everywhere now. Signals of this frequency could sidestep the various obstacles more easily and due to limited hindrance, they could work for small devices like smartphones.
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“Americans are increasingly demanding connectivity wherever they are, whenever they want, and whatever they are doing. In particular, they have grown accustomed to being able to connect using small, hand-held devices that they can carry with them or affix to mobile platforms”, said the company in the FCC filing.
The current satellites the company has are not capable of the “mobile service”. Hence SpaceX plans to attach new modules to them and also build a small mobile device for Earth to help establish its connection with small hand-held devices like smartphones. However, the company did not disclose the size or the shape of the proposed mobile device yet. But it is certainly not going to be a big one, like a large dish.
SpaceX last year acquired Swarm, a nano-satellites technology company that provides data for Internet-of-Things devices. This acquisition is said to accelerate the company’s expansion of Starlink services to the 2GHz band.
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