I believe this is addressed in the video that I linked. There are very good compression algorithms to allow voice, and "browsing" means something akin to slow dialup.
This is not something that could, for instance, replace your cell phone carrier.
In the video at 21:00 Elon clarifies: 2-4 megabits per cell zone.
Sorry if that was confusing. I mean that for instance: tmobile will be adding this to their coverage map, but they're not getting rid of the towers, and the primary way your phone is communicating with the world is not going to be via starlink satellites.
I occasionally get kicked down to 128 kbps for a few hours at the end of a month and a surprisingly large fraction of the internet still works.
They are targeting voice which can go really low, but a moderately optimistic ~100kps is vastly better than 0. Much below that and the number of people using it is going to drop near 0.
AT&T actually enforces it for tethering. If I really need something I can still use my phone, but it’s convenient to leave the phone where it gets reception and then use the tablet nearby.
I mean, I fire up and use lynx from time to time for a couple newspapers and magazine. Beyond evading some paywalls, it also presents it the way I want it: a wall of text. “Slow dialup” to me is 2.4kbps.
This is not something that could, for instance, replace your cell phone carrier.
In the video at 21:00 Elon clarifies: 2-4 megabits per cell zone.