> One New Zealand wants to ensure everyone is safe during an emergency regardless of the provider they are with, so anyone with an appropriate phone will be able to call 111 in an emergency (when voice satellite calling is available).

This will a game changer! Even if their service is super expensive, anybody will be able to make emergency calls ANYWHERE! This will make PLB (personal location beacons) redundant!

I hope something similar comes to Australia soon

I wonder what the feasibility is of deploying solar powered cell towers that use Starlink as an uplink. If a cell signal can go 25 miles then you should be able to locate the cells 50 miles apart. That would give you about 400 cell sites that that cover 1000 square miles. What is the cost / feasibility of doing something like this?

This'll be a game changer. Kiwi's are pretty outdoor people and this'll help emergency services a lot. It'll be fantastic being able to use maps etc while in places that they aren't traditionally usable, I look forward to it!

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One New Zealand's largest competitor Spark operates a country wide LoraWAN network, can SpaceX theoretically offer LoraWAN connectivity or would the TX power requirements be far more than a typical Lora device could sustain on battery/solar?

The rural mobile coverage in Aotearoa New Zealand is terrible. I'm excited about this. This probably will get me to switch from Spark because at the moment they have the best rural coverage.

"We will provide 2-4mbps download or uplink per beam. [...] Each beam will cover a 50km diameter on the ground."

Better than nothing?

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