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Comment by prenoob | Hacker News Reader

Not available everywhere yet, is it regulatory reasons or coverage? What satellites does it work with?

Swarm was bought by SpaceX a year or two ago. They were originally launching their own micro satellite constellation. Not sure how it works since SpaceX bought them.

I knew they were part of SpaceX now (though it's not obvious from the website), but didn't realize they were bought.

It's a completely different band from Starlink satellites though, but I suppose new satellites can incorporate additional hardware (not sure what the antenna design would be though... VHF wavelengths are way bigger...).

Swarm operates as a wholly owned subsidiary as far as I can tell. It wasn't fully integrated into SpaceX.

They still use Swarm's own satellites. And Swarm still launches additional satellites. They last launched 12 satellites on January 3rd on a Falcon 9 launch.

I think it's purely FCC like regulation/certification, at least from what I've read in the device description. Also, they have an "asset tracking device" that claims to have world coverage.

  Swarm provide global coverage over all regions, but there are regulatory restrictions for specific countries.

  The current list of approved countries / regions for the M138 Modem is: USA, Antarctica, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and International Waters (12 nautical miles offshore).

  Swarm continues to grow this list of approved countries as quickly as possible. Customers will receive regular updates on approved regions through the Swarm newsletter.

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