Starlink Removes GPS Data Access Through Local API

The story that I read elsewhere which I think was on this same change made it clear that the actual thing Starlink did was withdraw user access to position of the dish information calculated solely using Starlink's resources without relying on GPS. My first generation starlink dish as do the others has a built-in GPS unit and coordinates derived from it are readily available in the user interface. But the system has the capability to calculate its position without relying on GPS at all essentially using timing information from the Starlink satellites and knowing their positions.

In particular, people operating boats and ships in places with extensive GPS jamming and spoofing found they could get drastically more reliable position information relying on the pure Starlink position. The new change to the user interface withdraws access to that information.

After posting my comment, I took the trouble to download the debug data from my Starlink terminal for the first time in many months. Sure enough, the latitude and longitude were not listed.

That is indeed a change.

In the interface there was also a slider to specify that you wanted to rely only on Starlink provided position data. I think that slider may go away within a few days according to a story I saw posted elsewhere.

But as to actually displaying my position--that does seem to be gone.

As the position in question is a dish on the roof my house, which has not moved even an inch since I installed it years ago, losing real-time update of the information is not a big loss to me.

People using dishes that move are in a different situation, however.

Continental drift will get you every time!

On a non-wise-ass note I took a half dozen geology classes in the mid '60s. This is really a statement about how fast science progresses. In the mid '60s we learned about continental drift but plate tectonics may have been in a few papers written by crazies. Continental drift was the result of convection currents at e.g. the mid-atlantic ridge etc.

The plate tectonics version of moving continents stuff went from wild fringe to mainstream about as fast as anything I remember.

Back to the Starlink position information.

When I first responded to the original post I was unaware the API had ever even been a provided service.

Since then I've learned better. It was formerly offered, fully withdrawn, and in more recent update since this thread was started Starlink has revised their policy so that Starlink customers on business-focused Priority Plans can once again get their current coordinates as calculated NOT using GPS through the API.

The entire point of getting non-GPS position this way is resistance to GPS jamming and spoofing, which is on the increase in many locations around the world.

It is not impossible to jam, and perhaps to spoof Starlink positions, but it is quite different from GPS jamming and spoofing, and probalby requires far more capable assets (the links have more power margin, are far more numerous, and change very rapidly).