Starlink DTC /D2D: Expected availability in areas affected by the LA wildfires
T-Mobile opened up direct-to-cellular emergency texting over SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network on a temporary basis in areas affected by the catastrophic wildfires in the Los Angeles area. With 70% more DTC satellites than in October when Hurricane Milton hit Florida, cellphone users in the LA area should expect a less intermittent service.
The satellite service can be used to send texts to loved ones, deliver wireless emergency alerts and enable 911 messaging. ?The Starlink DTC network currently has 377 satellites orbiting in VLEO altitudes, so it can now provide connectivity more consistently. Below is a detailed analysis and datasets for the expected Starlink DTC 'wait' and 'service' time windows based on NCAT5.2 analytics.
In addition to the T-Mobile service via Starlink DTC satellites, Elon Musk announced that the company has donated several Tesla Cybertrucks to assist with power and connectivity in the Los Angeles County area. These vehicles will provide free Wi-Fi, leveraging Starlink (Ku-band broadband) in areas struggling with connectivity outages. Equipped with Tesla’s energy storage capabilities, these vehicles may also serve as battery banks, supplying backup power to critical equipment until normal power is restored.
Starlink DTC intermittent service expectations
As previously noted, the Starlink DTC service is being offered on a best-effort basis because the DTC network cannot yet provide a continuous service. However, the Starlink DTC network continues to grow in number of satellites. Since about a month ago, SpaceX has started populating a new VLEO shell with an inclination of 43 degrees, in addition to the satellites orbiting with 53 degrees of inclination. This can be observed in the chart and video (accelerated 300x and 60X).
The power and cellphone-tower outages caused by the LA wildfires inevitably result in cellphone-service 'dead zones' that the T-Mobile D2D service can mitigate or temporarily supplement for text and emergency messaging. Below is an NCAT5 simulation using the latest satellite ephemerides data to project SpaceX DTC service availability windows in the LA area. This way, affected users can know what to expect in terms of service response times.
Users that need to rely exclusively on the Starlink /T-Mobile D2D service on Monday through Wednesday should expect emergency and SMS messages to take up to 5 minutes to travel (to the T-Mobile core network) 99% of the time and less than a minute 35% of the time. Once one or more DTC satellites become visible (in line of sight) the satellite service should remain available for up to 5 minutes 94% of the time, after which users need to wait for the next satellite pass.
These simulated results represent a substantial improvement from the NCAT5 measurements in October when Hurricane Milton hit Florida. Back then the Starlink DTC network had 222 satellites whereas now NCAT records 377 Starlink DTC satellites orbiting in VLEO orbits.
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Download the Excel file with details
You can download the detailed analysis with a 20-second granularity to anticipate when one or more Starlink DTC satellites will be “in view” in the LA area and for how long.
The Non-GEO Constellations Analysis Toolkit (NCAT) is an assembly of easy-to-use analytics models to assess and benchmark LEO and MEO satellite constellations. To learn more about NCAT:
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1 个月UPDATE: as of today, the Starlink DTC /D2D network has over 400 in-service satellites according to NCAT5.2 calculations