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Doesn’t Globestar still have more satellites in orbit? With Apple supporting them, hoping there will be some consumer choice. This looking like regular cellular will become the new landline company.

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kotaKat 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> With Apple supporting them

Oh, no. Apple owns them at this point. 20% ownership, and they have 85% of Globalstar's current satellite capacity for themselves. GSAT isn't really putting new customers on the constellations and Apple is funding all the replacement hardware.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285347/apple-globalstar...

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grecy 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Globestar have 48 Satellites in orbit [1]

Starlink has 6,426 [2] (Though that number is likely out of date by the time you read this)

[1] https://www.groundcontrol.com/knowledge/calculators-and-maps...

[2] https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html

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tremarley 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Staking has over 7,000 now

They plan to launch 34,400 satellites

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sebzim4500 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think his point is that most Starlink satellites do not have this technology, but he's probably still wrong quantitatively.

	▲	nordsieck 18 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		To put some numbers to it, it looks like SpaceX started launching direct to cell satellites at the beginning of the year[1], and by July they had over 100 in orbit. Not sure how many are in orbit right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were close to 200. --- 1. https://spacenews.com/spacex-deploys-direct-to-smartphone-sa... 2. https://www.satellitetoday.com/connectivity/2024/07/03/space...
	▲	grecy 18 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I think his point is that most Starlink satellites do not have this technology Ah, thanks, I missed that. Wait another month, there will be at least another ~500 in orbit.