T-Mobile and SpaceX held an announcement event at Starbase located in Boca China, Texas. In this surprise event, the companies announced a vision for the future where dead zones would effectively be eliminated by using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to provide backup coverage in areas where there is otherwise no terrestrial cellular coverage. Areas such as national parks, remote locations in the United States or the ocean.
The live stream began with a video presentation of people living, working and playing in the most remote areas of the United States. For these people, not having a cellular signal could mean the difference between life and death in emergency situations.
“It’s about solving the biggest pain point in our industry’s 40-plus-year history,” says T-mobile CEO Mike Sievert. “This partnership has a vision that is the end of mobile dead zones.” According to the CEO, there are more than 500,000 square miles of uncovered American soil. And the idea depicted in the live streaming presentation is that people should never worry about losing their signal during an emergency.
Sievert states that as long as you have a clear view of the sky, you will be connected to T-Mobile’s network on your smartphone. T-Mobile will dedicate a slice of its midband PCS spectrum to integrate with the Starlink satellites that will launch into orbit next year. Smartphones will receive a signal if they are in your pocket in a car.
SpaceX will begin shipping second-generation Starlink satellites equipped with phased array antennas that will be able to compensate for orbital speeds to provide a connection. “I hope the audience understands the scope of the announcement,” Elon Musk said on stage.
The satellites will emulate a “cell” on earth that will be able to deliver speeds of up to 2 Mbps. Musk says this should be enough to handle 1000-2000 simultaneous voice calls or hundreds of thousands of text messages. The service will primarily support the sending and receiving of messages and plans are in place to handle voice and data. Musk made it clear on stage that these satellites are not meant to replace traditional towers, but they do provide a redundant network that could fill gaps and potentially provide a temporary network during a natural disaster when cell towers go offline.
You will be able to get a signal on your existing smartphone, as long as it can detect T-Mobile’s midband PCS spectrum (n41 band over 2.5 GHz). The satellites will be equipped with equipment that can connect to your smartphone without any additional hardware.
The satellite service will go online for a beta test later in 2023 with a possible public launch for 2024. T-Mobile’s “most popular” plans (Probably T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX) will be able to access the Starlink connection at no additional cost. while customers on the cheapest plans can pay an additional fee for access.
On stage, Elon Musk extended an open invitation to global wireless operators. “Please get in touch with us and we would love to partner with you and enable it globally.” Participating carriers could work out an agreement to provide reciprocal roaming services for their subscribers traveling to the United States and for T-Mobile users traveling overseas, facilitated through a simulated cellular antenna in space.
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