[gpm]

It can't. The size of a receiver is that of a pizza (this is the only way I've ever seen it described, I wonder if there is a more precise description somewhere) not that of a cell phone antenna.

It might contribute to providing backhaul services making cell-towers cheaper to deploy, and it might enable things like sticking an antenna in a vehicle, but it can't provide 4g style cell phone service.

[rococode]

Would it be feasible for them to build standalone cell towers of their own that connect to these space networks? So rather than "no cell towers at all", the benefit they provide is "no cables at all". They would just go around to remote areas and build towers without needing to lay down the cables. (disclaimer: basically don't understand this stuff at all haha)

[gpm]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1020479995028754432

Random twitter user (Anner J. Bonilla🇵🇷 <more emoji's, for some reason only 1 renders on HN>)

> can Starlink be used to back haul LTE/regular cell in rural areas or emergency situations/disasters? Seems like a great thing for disasters where back haul is damaged but not sure how useful it be due to bandwidth/latency?

> Would have been super useful in Puerto Rico.

Elon Musk

‏ > Yes, that will probably be its first use

[nradov]

In theory yes, but SpaceX would have to purchase 4G/5G terrestrial spectrum which is extremely expensive or sometimes unavailable at any price.

[mrep]

Yes! Many comments on r/spacex suggest that being a good use case for them but they have one major downside. Weather can affect satellite network connectivity which brings their availability down a few nines and many people expect most everything to run 100% of the time. I know growing up, I convinced my parents to try out directtv and my dad always got so mad when the weather caused the satellite tv to go out so it isn't perfect. Therefore, I don't expect it to be used by most people unless their only other opens are hughesnet or dsl.

[loeg]

Yeah, that's basically feasible and your intuition of the cost-savings / requirements is accurate. A cell phone monopoly doesn't have any incentive to pass on those savings to customers, but maybe a small group could band together and buy a portable base station to share.

[Dylan16807]

Remote towers often have wireless backhauls anyway. But if you only want a cell or two of coverage surrounded by a vast dead zone then it's likely viable somewhere.