T‑Mobile Takes Coverage Above and Beyond With SpaceX

[Soundsailor]

This could be a game-changer! Coverage everywhere via satellite using most cellphones.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-coverage-above-and-beyond-with-spacex

 

[DougW9876]

Well. that could certainly be a game changer.

 

[Dick Noble]

Been waiting for this. It is only a matter of time till cell phones go the way of rotary phones.

 

[TomPanning]

I read about this on a tech news site that I read, and there are a couple of caveats that aren’t clear from the PR statement. 1) They’re anticipating supporting only text and voice (no data) at first. 2) This requires a new version of Starlink’s satellites, and those satellites require SpaceX’s new rocket which has not had a test launch yet.

That being said, being able to use your phone instead of having to get a dedicated satellite messenger would be really nice.

 

[geotex1]

Having grown up with the rotary on Ma Bell, with the cord my sisters stretched to unreal lengths and knotted, to my first cell phone in 1994 - "the brick" after a legion of pagers, to the unreal commuting power in the palm of our hands today... Technology has been incredible in the course of my lifetime!

It's been great to use Starlink from the camper - effectively - for Teams, Zoom, and VoIP, such partnering would open a whole new dimension to instant communication - good or bad, the perspective is yours... It'll be some time before Starship is deploying v2.0s to put a capable mesh is in place, but really fascinating what's on the horizon!

 

[traveldawg]

Here is a good review from what I consider a trusted source.

 

[trailrydr]

After reading the article, I'm confused on how this will make it any better for those areas that dont have coverage in far remote areas. Sure, Musks satelites can propagate communications around the world (as does other satelites currently do BTW) without interference from earths geography or land based limitations. But, the article stated that current cell phone tech would not need to be updated and could use this new network as is. Maybe, Ive been asleep technology wise for the last year or so, but dont cell phones still need towers or transmission structures of some kind to convert whatever signal to cell, and broadcast/recieve such signal no matter what backbone their service/capacity is using?

Agree that beaming up/down to these "converters/broadcast/receivers" would be less expensive and possibly easier than running wire/fiber, but, land (and all the access issues), terrestrial interference, power requirements, numbers needed and the maintainability of, are just a few questions that come to mind. And if they only do limited service as what the video supplied mentioned direct from the sats, it sounds like capacity and/or terrestrial issues could still exist.

Otherwise, sure I can't wait till we colonize the moon.

 

[TomPanning]

After reading the article, I'm confused on how this will make it any better for those areas that dont have coverage in far remote areas. Sure, Musks satelites can propagate communications around the world (as does other satelites currently do BTW) without interference from earths geography or land based limitations. But, the article stated that current cell phone tech would not need to be updated and could use this new network as is. Maybe, Ive been asleep technology wise for the last year or so, but dont cell phones still need towers or transmission structures of some kind to convert whatever signal to cell, and broadcast/recieve such signal no matter what backbone their service/capacity is using?

The satellites would act like cell towers. I’m assuming that’s part of the reason they’re only supporting text and voice, because the signal won’t be strong enough from orbit to transmit much data.

 

[Dale B]

This isn't new, technology you can already have. The new part would be the utilizing the cell phone all in one, rather than two devices.

I currently use an InReach that pairs to my phone then connects to Satellite. It has SOS & the ability to txt or email using my phone contacts. Beides all the GPS capability.

I've been using this for years as a backcountry snowmobiler & traveling remote rural areas.

They have added a new device called Zoleo that will seamlessly hand your phone off to WiFi, satellite or cell service. I will most likely upgrade to this late this year or early next.

What this does not do like T mobile is have data plans or voice communications. That will be new when it happens.