T-Mobile‘s CEO Mike Sievert took to the stage at the SpaceX stomping ground in Texas in a surprise appearance with Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk to announce a dead spot network coverage partnership with the Starlink satellite connectivity service.
Launching in beta at the end of the 2023 in select places around the US, the satellite-to-cellular connectivity service will cover dead spots that not only T-Mobile, but no other carrier has been able to blanket, such as areas in national parks with cell phone tower restrictions or other hard-to-reach places.
Don’t expect 5G speeds, though, as the service will use your existing phone and you will only be able to text or at the most use chat apps from the dead spot area:
With this technology, T-Mobile is planning to give customers text coverage practically everywhere in the continental US, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters, even outside the signal of T-Mobile’s network starting with a beta in select areas by the end of next year after SpaceX’s planned satellite launches. Text messaging, including SMS, MMS and participating messaging apps, will empower customers to stay connected and share experiences nearly everywhere. Afterwards, the companies plan to pursue the addition of voice and data coverage.
Still, that’s better than no coverage, plus it uses the existing Stalink and T-Mobile infrastructure, so it seems like a win-win-win scenario for T-Mobile, SpaceX, and their customers. This apparently is just a pilot project for Elon Musk as the CEOs “shared their vision for expanding Coverage Above and Beyond globally, issuing an open invitation to the world’s carriers to collaborate for truly global connectivity.”
