Starlink is rolling out "direct to cell" connections, where the satellites connect directly to GSM cell phones. Is any ground station involved in a cell to cell call?
You could imagine a situation where they can do that.
But practically what happens is the phone connects to a sat, the sat connects to a local ground station, then across conventional fiber to another ground station, up to a sat and then down to the other phones.
The are likely doing that because regulation and so on. But the do what you suggest.
At the ground stations
GS is layer 2. It's done at the POP's like every other company
Starlink is rolling out "direct to cell" connections, where the satellites connect directly to GSM cell phones. Is any ground station involved in a cell to cell call?
You could imagine a situation where they can do that.
But practically what happens is the phone connects to a sat, the sat connects to a local ground station, then across conventional fiber to another ground station, up to a sat and then down to the other phones.
The are likely doing that because regulation and so on. But the do what you suggest.
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