First two-way cellphone call made via satellite using an unmodified Galaxy S22 phone and a BlueWalker 3 satellite

AST SpaceMobile claims it is building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible by standard smartphones.

They plan to deliver a global cellular network from space. In a briefing early last year, the company told investors that its network would eventually consist of 168 satellites.

The key differentiator for AST SpaceMobile currently is that the company has facilitated a low-earth satellite connection without needing special software, ground terminals or hardware.

What’s important with this approach is that the change is on the satellite side so that ordinary phones could be used. The Qualcomm chip approach required extra chips in the phone to communicate via the Inmarsat and other satellite networks, which are pretty costly to use.

I’d imagine that access would be like roaming another network, with that network’s cellular rates applying when it is used.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/489147-first-two-way-cellphone-call-made-via-satellite.html
#Blog, #satellite, #satellitecomms, #technology, #telephony

BT puts the brakes on digital landline switchover - here's what that means for you | TechRadar

BT has paused the migration of landline users from the old analogue phone system after admitting that it needed to take additional measures to reassure customers of the quality and reliability of the new digital voice service.
Digital voice services use a fibre network rather than a dedicated network of physical lines to serve customers.
Because traffic is carried over the same network as broadband, cost, complexity, and energy consumption is lowered for providers, while customers benefit from higher quality voice calls and lower volumes of scam calls.

They don't mention when it's going to finally happen, so we'll have to wait for a date.

#UK #technology #tech #telephony #phone #VOIP

https://www.techradar.com/news/bt-puts-the-brakes-on-digital-landline-switchover-heres-what-that-means-for-you

After 16 years, South Africa finally gets the green light for non-geographic number porting

The legislation allows businesses to move their non-geographic telephone numbers (0800; 0860; 0861; 0862 and 087), much the same as consumers can port from one network operator to another. It also allows companies to use different service providers, without having to go through the expensive undertaking of changing their numbers.

Companies who require more innovative call centre solutions can look forward to engaging with service providers who are innovative, agile and built to deliver greater customisability to meet their needs. Through the proclamation of this legislation, customers can look forward to benefiting from reduced prices and better service.

See https://techcentral.co.za/non-geographic-number-porting-finally-gets-the-green-light/206435/

#Blog, #southafrica, #technology, #telephony

Dumb Phone

Elsewhere a friend laments:

The frequency with which I need my email and a notebook while I'm on the phone makes integrated devices foolish.

I'd covered that point a few years ago in a larger essay on the tyranny of the minimum viable user:

It's also interesting to consider what the operating environment of earlier phones was -- because it exceeded the device itself.

A business-use phone of, say, the 1970s, existed in a loosely-integrated environment comprising:

• The user
• The phone itself
• A Rolodex or addressbook / contacts list
• The local PBX -- the business's dedicated internal phone switch.
• A secretary or switchboard operator, serving also as a message-taking (voice-to-text), screening, redirect, directory, interactive voice response, and/or calendaring service
• A desk calendar
• A phone book
• A diary or organiser
• Scratch paper

Critically: these components operated simultaneously and independently of the phone.

A modern business, software, or smartphone system may offer some, or even all, of these functions, but frequently:

• They aren't available whilst a call is in process
• They have vastly less capability or flexibility than the systems they replaced

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/

There's also the increasingly evident problem that having all your critical data on a communications device is a fundamental and intractable risk. The dis-integrated business telephony environment of the 1950s--1990s maintained data isolation between elements. Telephone numbers served as the reasonably-viable data-exchange-and-linking interface between components (map a name or address to a number, enter the number on a calendar or correspondence, etc.).

It's almost as if putting your filing system, personal diary, correspondence, photo album, and directory on a surveillance and exfiltration device was a Bad Idea.

And not just from a UI/UX / accessibility perspective.

It turns out that a chief affordance of the old POTS landline telephone was the air gap between it and everything else inside your office / home.

(We can talk about the solicitations, robocalls, and phishing issues separately.)

#telephony #telephones #risk #AirGap #data #DataAreLiability #UIUX #Usability #SmartPhones #DumbPhones #computers #communications #privacy #security #surveillance