i work mostly in the communication-related part, which basically involves ensuring that terrestrial and satellite networks can connect and are efficient enough to allow users to make calls, watch a YouTube video, or FaceTime with someone, with the connection provided by a satellite :D

i was watching youtube right now!
Thank you for your service in allowing me to watch youtube!!

that sounds like very important work too. is it a fragile system? Like do you always have to be cautious not to make the slightest mistake so as to not disrupt the system? Like, what's it feel like to work at a lab like that? (sorry if im being annoying asking too many questions, its just that its not everyday that I get to talk to someone who does something so interesting, at a research lab no less!)

no you're not annoying at all! i love talking about it and i think it's very cute you care about it.

in fact, the funny thing about all this is that “typical” cell phones (i.e., commercial ones) still don’t have access to satellite service; only for emergencies, but not for use cases like the ones we’ve mentioned. right now we have 5G, but the plan is for this to be fully operational by the time 6G is rolled out. at the moment, there are many issues with optimization, synchronization between terrestrial antennas and satellites, etc.

the only solution that comes close to this is Starlink (damn Elon Musk lol i hate him but it's true), which connects a low-orbit satellite to an antenna you can set up, for example, in your home, on a boat, or in a remote location in the countryside... and it gives you a connection. but it doesn’t connect directly to your phone ..... that’s the future, and it’s still being researched :D

but we're quite close!!! maybe 3-4 years from here it'll be a reality
So Exciting

(im glad you don't think its annoying, that means i get to bother you with more questions muahahah)

okay but wait, so, and im sorry im just realizing i know next to nothing about any of this, but our phones can't connect to satellites? You say typical, does that mean there are ones that have direct connection to various satellites? What are those phones used for, like do they have some sort of special purpose? and you say that other than emergency reasons we don't really connect to satellites through our phones, so do you mean like when we need to connect to emergency services? like a call to 911 uses satellite? ig that's why even if you can't call anyone else, you can usually call emergency services...or so I've heard.

also, yeah, i hate that prick too. I wonder if there are any other companies in the low-orbit satellite business. ig its a very capital intensive area but its not like rich people are all dead...so why doesn't some other rich guy make a low-orbit satellite and give the world a starlink alt?

no worries, great questions! regular phones aren’t built to talk to satellites, they’re designed for nearby cell towers (4G/5G) using frequencies and antennas optimized for short distances, while satellites are hundreds or thousands of km away and need way more power and bigger antennas. dedicated satellite phones do exist (iridium, thuraya, inmarsat) and are used by sailors, mountaineers, journalists in conflict zones, rescue teams, researchers in antarctica, etc., they’re bulky and expensive. the new thing is that modern phones (iphone 14+, some samsungs/pixels) now have limited satellite connectivity, mostly for emergency SOS and short texts when off-grid. about 911: normally emergency calls still go through cell towers but they’re prioritized, even without your carrier’s signal your phone can use any available network to reach emergency services, which is why they often work when regular calls don’t. it’s not really satellite (unless you have satellite SOS enabled), just network-level priority.​​​​​​​​​​

so if phones have the capability to make emergency calls regardless of the absence of a carrier's signal then why can't phones make calls to other people this way too? If you say its just a network level priority, what would happen if other calls were given this priority too? Can our current system not handle that kind of volume?

also now Im interested in buying a satellite phone...considering that sailors on the ocean and mountaineers are using it in super remote regions, that means satellite signals must reach everywhere, right? Like you should be able to access a satellite connection from anywhere on this planet. Is there anywhere where a satellite signals can't reach even if you have the appropriate devices?

so the reason emergency calls work without a carrier is regulatory + technical: phones are legally required to connect to !!any!! available network for emergencies, and carriers must accept them even from non-customers. if every call had that priority, the system would collapse, networks are sized for expected paid traffic, not “everyone roams freely on everyone’s towers.” it’s not just volume, it’s also billing, authentication, and fairness between carriers. emergencies are the exception precisely because they’re rare and life-critical

about sat phones: signal coverage depends on the constellation. iridium for example has 66 satellites in low orbit nd genuinely covers the entire planet, poles included. thuraya and inmarsat use geostationary sats over the equator, so they cover most of the world but not the polar regions (above ~70° lat). also, sat phones need line of sight to the sky, so they don’t work indoors, in deep canyons, dense jungle canopy, or underground/underwater.

open sky = signal :D

also, i didn't know that a cluster of satellites is called a constellation...is that right? That's so cute!

also, are those all the companies/satelite providers that are out there? Like its just iridium, thuraya and inmarsat? I imagine it'd be next to impossible for a new person who wants to enter that industry and launch their own satellites up.

interesting that they don't even work indoors...ig maybe that's why we used to have those dish antenas back when cable tv was a huge thing. The TV, without that dish, could not operate...that makes sense now. (part 2/2)

if we were to build such a free for all system, what would it look like? ig the reason why different carriers came into being is because governments said we don't wanna handle all the maintenance so different companies were given the job to construct towers and manage them. Their customers are allowed to use their towers and the money they make turns into funds for these towers and their profits. But in an ideal world, could we just let one company, considering they aren't profit hungry, handle all the construction and maintenance of the towers? No customers, everyone's phones just connects to whatever tower is the closest. considering that all phones have the same radius, how many people would it take to cause the nearest tower to overflow? more importantly, what is the radius within which a modern smartphone can connect to a tower? I'm curious to see if a ffa system is possible, if we factor out corporate greed and a company's intrinsic desire for power and money. (part 1/2)