T-Mobile and SpaceX have taken another step toward enabling satellite connectivity for T-Mobile wireless users. On Monday, the two companies announced that they have opened up registration for T-Mobile Starlink, their joint program that allows T-Mobile users to connect to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to connect in areas where is terrestrial wireless coverage.
T-Mobile says the beta program is free for all “postpaid voice customers with a compatible device” and will allow texting using satellites to begin when it launches “in early 2025.” The carrier says voice and data support will “come in the future.”
The carrier expects to launch the commercial version of the service “sometime in 2025,” and it’s unclear whether it will charge users for the connection or limit access or features to customers with specific wireless plans.
“Over time, T-Mobile Starlink is expected to work with the phone in your pocket,” the carrier told CNET when asked which phones would be compatible with the beta version. “During the beta testing phase we are optimizing the experience on selected devices and will continue to test and expand to as many devices as possible over time, we will provide more details on the optimized phones and share them closer to our T-Mobile Starlink beta launch .”
“T-Mobile Starlink is the world’s first major low-frequency circuit constellation paired with terrestrial cellular spectrum, making the phone in your pocket work in areas of the United States that have never had, and likely never will have, terrestrial coverage.” Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy and products said in a statement.
“It’s a truly ground-breaking engineering breakthrough and means we’re one step closer to helping T-Mobile customers have confidence that no matter where they are, if they can see the sky, they’ll be covered by T- Mobile,” Katz said.
T-Mobile and SpaceX first announced their partnership back in 2022 by combining some of T-Mobile’s wireless spectrum with SpaceX’s satellites. SpaceX put its first satellites capable of the service into orbit in January of this year and has since been building its constellation of capable Starlink satellites.
The two companies actually turned on the service when Hurricanes Milton and Helene hit parts of the United States in October, with users connected to the service seeing “T-Mobile SpaceX” in the network name and their phones showing “1 to 2 signal bars” strength, according to SpaceX.
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission gave its approval to SpaceX to use “all 7,500 satellites in its authorized Gen2 system” for cell coverage. It has yet to approve its plan for additional satellites, including “the remaining 22,488 satellites” the company would like to deploy for the service.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has previously written on X that the company will work exclusively with T-Mobile on the service for at least the first year.
T-Mobile competitors AT&T and Verizon have previously announced their own plans for satellite connectivity through AST SpaceMobile, with Verizon previously announcing plans to work with Amazon’s Project Kuiper back in 2021. Verizon is also working with satellite provider Skylo to enable texting on Android phones. (iPhone 14 and newer Apple phones, regardless of carrier, are capable of using satellites for iMessage texting with iOS 18.)
At some point “early next year,” Verizon has said it will let users with “compatible devices” like Google’s Pixel 9 or Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S25 series be able to send texts using satellites.
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