This year, SpaceX and T-Mobile will begin testing their revolutionary Starlink service that will bring satellite connectivity to mobile phones, according to an executive at the space company. As reports , it seems we are on the verge of entering a new era, where mobile phone “dead zones” will no longer exist.
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Starlink is a satellite broadband service developed by SpaceX. It uses an array of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that communicate with antennas installed on the roofs or walls of its customers. These antennas then connect to the user's home router and can provide internet connection speeds of up to 1 Gbps with latency as low as 20 milliseconds – making it comparable to traditional cable or fiber optic internet services.
Last August, SpaceX and T-Mobile announced their partnership with the intention of providing comprehensive coverage to most areas of America – even those previously unreachable by traditional cell phone signals. We are working to build a new network, leveraging the mid-band 5G of Starlink satellites and T-Mobile.
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With many companies competing to be the first to offer people data coverage on their cell phones, sat-to-cell is seen as the cutting edge of space-based connectivity services. In 2021, Amazon ’s Project Kuiper — a satellite broadband project that has yet to launch any satellites — announced a similar partnership with Verizon . Apple, the consumer electronics giant, has stepped up and entered this space. To bring Emergency SOS to iPhone users , the company invested nearly half a billion dollars in a satellite network and ground stations provided by well-known carriers like Globalstar .
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Other startups are also vying for a place in this market. The Federal Communications Commission recently granted Lynk, an organization trying to achieve two-way SMS communication from space, permission to put a satellite into low-Earth orbit. AST SpaceMobile seeks to launch giant satellites with the potential to provide global access to cellular broadband. Last year, the company sent its first test satellite into orbit.
