SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a partnership in 2022 to use the former’s Starlink satellites and the latter’s spectrum to bring connectivity to areas unreachable by terrestrial networks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) greenlit some of their plans in late 2024, paving the way for the announcement of the beta program.
T-Mobile started notifying customers who were approved for the beta earlier this month. And now, the beta is about to kick off.
Elon Musk said on January 24 that the direct-to-cella beta would begin in three days, or January 27. That’s going to delight many users, as an employee had previously said that the program may not go live until early February.
Starlink direct from satellite to cell phone Internet connection starts beta test in 3 days.
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, January 2025
The beta program will be free for all postpaid customers, but initially, only a handful of Samsung phones will be eligible. More phones will become compatible as T-Mobile works on optimizations.
For now, only texting will be supported. SpaceX says that data and IoT services will be rolled out in 2025 and voice support is coming later, but it remains to be seen how that plays out, as regulatory approval hasn’t been granted for a waiver required to activate services other than texting.
This is a huge win nonetheless, for not only SpaceX and T-Mobile but also for customers. After dead zones are eliminated, customers won’t have to worry about not having service in rural or remote areas.
Space-based texting will be subject to delivery delays and performance could be impacted by factors such as location and number of people using the service at the same time.
