Apple and T-Mobile hogged the headlines with their pre-announcements about Starlink, but Lynk has been putting in the work and may very well steal their lunch with a satellite-to-phone connection that already works It is just a matter of selecting a mobile network partner to bring it to market here in the US.
The emergency service was demonstrated with a test cell tower. You wouldn't find a broadband connection or a legacy satellite band that would allow you to point your phone at a dot in the sky. It is supposed to be used for emergencies, check-ins from the back country, and spreading information in places where networks are down.
It was not easy to send a text from an antenna that was moving thousands of miles per hour, and CEO Charles Miller said it took a few years for it to happen. He doesn't feel a lot of heat when major companies say they're working on it.
There are a lot of hard things that no one else has done yet. He told me that they haven't yet. We were the first to patent it. The world's only active cell tower is in space.
It wouldn't matter if you have regulatory approval and partners in the mobile space. The United States FCC is the "gold standard" for this kind of testing and validation, despite the fact that they have 15 contracts across 36 countries around the world.
The FCC approval process is a battleground where companies try to run interference on one another. Hughes, which operates a number of communications satellites, objected to Lynk's application on various grounds, which the FCC put down, and Amazon's request for the data to be shared with everyone else was not granted. One request partly agreed to was from the National Radio Astronomers Organization, which asked for limits on the number of radios that could be used.
Lynk demos global satellite connection for ordinary phones and prepares for commercial launch
This one step with the FCC is not the end. The order approved today shows that the satellite services will not interfere with other services. The more difficult and drawn out question of safety and interference is already answered when a partner is found for the project.
How will the go-to- market piece work? Miller expects to convert testing licenses acquired in other countries into commercial ones, a process that mobile providers have to lead. It is the same thing if you operate in the U.S.
What will the service look like? If the commercial product looks like it will make its services available for emergencies to anyone, so you won't be stuck in a snowstorm just because you're on the wrong network.
There were hundreds of ordinary phones in the visualization. The image is called "Lynk."
If you don't have AT&T's network, you just have to pay a roaming charge. The last thing anyone will be thinking about when they hurt their ankle is a 50 cent fee.
Miller wouldn't comment on the competition since it's all theoretical. T-Mobile and Starlink's service is still a twinkle in their eyes, while Skylo is using satellites that work with specific devices, and Apple's service is limited. You can buy dedicated satellite messaging devices, but they aren't as good as the one you already own.
There is no launch date set for the US, but you can get a ride to space every week or two. Expect more on this potentially life-saving service in the coming months, but don't count on it for this ski season.
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