Is Elon Musk's "Starlink" doomed to only modest success? (satellite community)

[Yazata]

Today Ukraine (!!!) became the first European country to activate Starlink Direct-to-Cell service. Right now it's only text, but voice and data are coming.

Gwynne says, "The satellite-to-mobile service is powering life-saving connectivity when and where people need it most - during prolonged blackouts or in areas where terrestrial networks are often damaged. Looking forward to connecting more people in Europe with our next-generation capabilities!"

https://x.com/Gwynne_Shotwell/status/199...7881237617

Kyivstar, the local cell-phone service provider says:

"Now officially
Our subscribers can send SMS messages directly through satellites.

How does it work?
No need to set up or connect anything additional. The smartphone automatically finds the satellite signal when there is no terrestrial coverage, and the network name — Kyivstar SpaceX — will appear on the screen. You just need to be under the open sky.

- The technology will help you stay connected in challenging conditions, even during blackouts.
- Currently, it is available for smartphones with 4G support on the Android operating system.
- And with the nearest iOS update, it will be available for iPhone 13 and newer models.

Stay connected even where there is no mobile network coverage

https://x.com/TwiyKyivstar/status/1992957395660571075

[Yazata]

And Chile becomes the first Latin American country to make Direct-to-Cell available nationwide.

https://x.com/entel/status/1993113791077532081

[Secular Sanity]

We haven’t gotten it yet, but we just ordered it. I still have an iPhone 6s. I didn’t want a new one because mine still works fine, but now I guess I need one. Dang it! It seems like there’s always something going wrong with the newer ones. I wonder if Starlink can be jammed. Looks like it's theoretically possible, but difficult.

[stryder]

We haven’t gotten it yet, but we just ordered it. I still have an iPhone 6s. I didn’t want a new one because mine still works fine, but now I guess I need one. Dang it! It seems like there’s always something going wrong with the newer ones. I wonder if Starlink can be jammed. Looks like it's theoretically possible, but difficult.

Artificially induced Tropospheric Ducting (wikipedia.org) perhaps?

[Secular Sanity]

We haven’t gotten it yet, but we just ordered it. I still have an iPhone 6s. I didn’t want a new one because mine still works fine, but now I guess I need one. Dang it! It seems like there’s always something going wrong with the newer ones. I wonder if Starlink can be jammed. Looks like it's theoretically possible, but difficult.

Artificially induced Tropospheric Ducting (wikipedia.org) perhaps?

Oh, I was wrong. I ordered Starlink Mini (duh), which means that I can keep my old phone.

The paper I looked at was showing that to jam an area the size of Taiwan, they'd need a thousand drones.

[Yazata]

Peru has just activated Starlink Direct to Cell (it's apparently the same telecom company that is operating it in next door Chile).

https://x.com/EntelPeru/status/1995920060385305076

[Yazata]

Starlink has just passed 9 million customers, worldwide. That's up from 8 million on November 5th and 7 million in August 27.

They are currently connecting an average of 21,275 new customers a day!

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