SpaceX FCC Application for over 4000 Internet Satellites
My bet is that the &quot;pizza box&quot; phased array rooftop antenna will evolve into a complete base-station. We know it has a multi-element RF front-end feeding in to massively parallel software defined radio (SDR). Likely available in PoE or wireless variants (solar+batteries+wifi; imagine the MIMO with 100 antenna elements!).<p>SDR is quite interesting because it can track moving satellites, and do simultaneous multipath reconstruction of multiple terrestrial broadcast signals -- digital tlevision, FM&#x2F;AM&#x2F;satellite radio, shortwave, etc. No antenna pointing needed, as it&#x27;s all done in software. After demodulating the carrier the video and audio content is streamed on a local web page available to computers&#x2F;phones&#x2F;tablets on the LAN. Existing TVs can be supported via an HDMI or analog (VGA&#x2F;composite&#x2F;3.5mm) stick w an RF remote.<p>Optional (or one-time software unlock?) on-board storage for multimedia time-shifting and distributed CDN caching (reducing bandwidth and latency by keeping commonly served duplicate files like js libraries locally). Having a local server also lets them do fun things in the future like transparent LZMA compression, optional ad&#x2F;telemetry&#x2F;malware blocking, data pre-caching, smart shared HTTP caching, etc.<p>The inclusion of on-board storage allows data to be sloshed around to best utilize the terrestrial spectrum (broadcast content) and satellite spectrum (multicast content). It&#x27;s much like Tesla batteries allow energy to be sloshed around to best utilize distributed solar and the utility grid.<p>With proper RF front-end design, support for the diversity of global broadcast standards can added through OTA software updates via satellite. This simplifies hardware into a single &quot;world&quot; model with regional software variants.<p>Easy install, especially with the wireless version (mount on pole, erect, securely fasten, done). Broadcast signal reach and convenience (any device or TV) that beats the pants off of any OTA antenna out there. Convenient access to terrestrial broadcast content w time-shifting takes some of the load from streaming services, so it&#x27;s a strategic move and not just a &quot;gee wiz&quot; feature they got cheap because of SDR.<p>At $200-300 for the equipment and $50&#x2F;mo for internet, with a good multimedia time shifting UI, SpaceX would <i>cream</i> every rural data provider out there.<p>Anyway, just the idle dreams of an internet user living in a rural satellite &quot;data desert&quot;...