SpaceX Gets FCC Approval to Start Using Starlink for T-Mobile Cell Service

T-Mobile and SpaceX are getting closer to launch. In submissions to X on Tuesday, SpaceX executives confirmed that their Starlink satellite broadband program has now been approved by the Federal Communications Commission to begin offering cellphone coverage.

Sara Spangelo, a senior executive at SpaceX according to her profile on the social media platform, said the approval “is a major and critical step toward enabling ubiquitous high-quality text, data, emergency and ultimately voice connectivity in the United States and internationally.”

SpaceX has lined up a number of carrier partners for the service around the world and will work exclusively with T-Mobile in the US for at least the first year. T-Mobile and SpaceX first announced plans to use Starlink to boost T-Mobile’s cell coverage back in 2022, with the plan to initially support text messaging and eventually voice and data as well.

In its announcement, the FCC authorized SpaceX to use “all 7,500 satellites in its authorized Gen2 system” for cell coverage, although the agency continued “to delay SpaceX’s request to deploy additional Gen2 Starlink satellites beyond the total of 7,500 satellites previously was approved” including “this remaining 22,488 satellites” the company would like to deploy to the service.

During Hurricanes Irene and Milton earlier this year, the airline and space agency received temporary approval from the FCC to use Starlink to send emergency alerts and enable text messages via satellite to people affected by the storms.

With the new formal approval, SpaceX’s Ben Longmier tweeted that the company hopes to enable beta access for employees in the United States “soon.”

Like Apple’s satellite solution for the iPhone 14 and newer (and Google’s for the Pixel 9 series), T-Mobile and SpaceX’s services aren’t designed to replace existing coverage you’d get from a wireless carrier today, but to augment it when normal terrestrial network is not available. In its post-hurricane deployments, phones connected to the service saw “T-Mobile SpaceX” in the network name to indicate satellite connectivity, while showing “1 to 2 signal bars” strength.

While SpaceX and T-Mobile’s formal FCC approval is a notable step forward, the two are far from the only space game in town. AT&T, which along with Verizon is working with AST SpaceMobile on its own satellite-based cellular connectivity solution, has teased at X that it will share some space-related news during its investor day next week.

See this: Apple vs. Google: Satellite emergency features compared

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