Re: T-Mobile opens satellite communications to Android, iOS, AT&E & Verizon

On 2025-02-11 21:09, Frank Slootweg wrote:

Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2025-02-11 19:25, micky wrote:

In comp.mobile.android, on Mon, 10 Feb 2025 04:05:51 -0000 (UTC), Marion
<marion@facts.com> wrote:

...

If I hiked in the wilderness, or if I lived in the wilderness, this
would be nice to have.  But don't you need a phone with a more powerful
transmitter to get all the way up in the sky?

>
Depends on how high those satellites are. They could be "just" 400 Km away.

    Indeed, with line-of-sight mobile phones can cover quite large
distances.
    Case in point: Several years ago, we traveled in a small mail plane,
from Port Augusta to Birdsville in Australia. While there are no towers
for about 500km of that distance, the pilot had absolutely no problem
using his (normal) mobile phone during the flight.
    Because of the distances, Australia's main network operator (Telstra)
uses relatively low frequencies (850 MHz for 3G and 700 MHz for 4G), but
that's not the only explanation of this wide in-the-air coverage.
    OTOH, I assume that the transmitters in satellites have much less
power than towers on the earth surface, so I don't know what distances
would be achievable for (normal) phone to satellite communication.

I have seen towers inside, although two decades ago, and the backup batteries were just 4 lead-acid batteries of maybe a third of the size my car uses. Sorry, I do not remember the amps. That's 48 volts (standard voltage in telephony) but not many amps. So, not a lot of power. I think I have seen some towers fed from solar panels.
--
Cheers, Carlos.