SpaceX founder Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievertsaid their companies will work together to “end cellular dead zones” and will jointly launch a new mobile powered by satellites and T-Mobile bandwidth.
SpaceX 's Starlink satellite internet service consists of a network of satellites that the company has launched into low Earth orbit . The goal of this service is to provide high-speed internet to remote locations around the world. To this end and to support the network, SpaceX has launched more than 2,700 satellites. so far
See also: SpaceX's Starlink Maritime: Satellite internet for yachts
Speaking at SpaceX's facilities in Texas, Sievert said T-Mobile will dedicate "a chunk of its mid-band PCS spectrum" to be integrated into its Starlink satellites that will launch next year.
T-Mobile users will be able to use text messages, MMS, and some messaging apps from remote locations in the lower 48 states, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii, and even from some remote locations on the water.
Support for voice service will gradually be added, Sievert said. T-Mobile plans to include the service on its most popular mobile plans, but did not disclose specific pricing.
As we said above, SpaceX and T-Mobile's new mobile service will work with Starlink's second-generation satellites, which have very large antennas and will be able to broadcast directly to mobile phones.
See also: SpaceX's Starlink Maritime: Satellite internet for yachts
Fortunately, users won't need to change devices to use the service. Musk also said that during or after a natural disaster, even if all cell towers are destroyed, the service will still work.
Musk clarified, so that users know what to expect: “ This won’t have the kind of bandwidth that a Starlink terminal will have, but it will allow text messaging, and if there aren’t too many people in the cell zone, you might even have video capability it will enable images , .” He also said: “We’re not going to read about these tragedies anymore, where people got lost and if they could call for help, that would be good .”
The service will initially be offered to customers in the United States, but T-Mobile plans to expand it to other markets in the future, Sievert said. “It’s like putting a cell phone antenna in the sky, but much more complicated,” he explained.
It remains to be seen how effective the partnership will be and how many wireless customers will benefit.
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The news of the SpaceX and T-Mobile partnership comes two weeks after federal regulators announced that SpaceX would not receive the nearly $900 million in subsidies the company won in December, citing the satellite service as “still in development” and the company’s “failure to demonstrate that it could deliver the service it promised.”
The Federal Communications Commission, which oversaw the program , said there were several reasons it decided to deny SpaceX subsidies, including recent data that “shows that Starlink speeds are declining from the last quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022.”
Source: www.cnbc.com
