On: Existing smartphones will connect with new satelli...

[lormayna]

https://lora-developers.semtech.com/documentation/tech-paper...

> LoRa provides for long-range communications: up to three miles (five kilometers) in urban areas, and up to 10 miles (15 kilometers) or more in rural areas (line of sight)

500km is one magnitude order more than the supposed range. And no phone has a LoRa chipset inside, neither the new ones.

[snovv_crash → lormayna]

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9187602

The range limits are really around expected usage given omnidirectional antennas, unlicensed transmission power and terrestrial interference.

For LoS with a small (single) directional antenna it's easy to get another 10db. With a big dish you can go a lot higher.