Listen to this articleSpaceX and T-Mobile will start testing a brand new service to bring satellite tv for pc connectivity to cell telephones this year, a SpaceX executive said. The information, first reported by CNBC, means that we could also be near a future the place mobile “dead zones” are a factor of the past.
SpaceX and T-Mobile announced the partnership last August, saying that they plan to provide “near complete coverage in most places in the U.S. — even in many of the most remote locations previously unreachable by traditional cell signals.” The thought is to create a brand new community, one which leverages Starlink satellites’ and T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G spectrum.
Sat-to-cell is taken into account to be the following frontier for space-based connectivity companies, with a number of firms racing to be the first to provide knowledge to cell telephones. Project Kuiper — a competitor satellite tv for pc broadband undertaking from Amazon, which has but to launch any satellites — announced an analogous partnership with Verizon in 2021. Consumer electronics giant Apple has also strayed into this area: The firm has invested practically half a billion {dollars} in satellite tv for pc community and floor stations from entities like Globalstar to ship emergency SOS to iPhone users.
Other startups are also competing in this area. Lynk, an organization engaged on two-way SMS capabilities from area, just lately obtained FCC approval to deploy and function a satellite tv for pc constellation in low Earth orbit. Satellite-to-smartphone firm AST AreaMobile needs to deploy huge satellites that might provide mobile broadband across the world. The firm launched its first take a look at satellite tv for pc last year.
Starlink and T-Mobile’s sat-to-cell service will begin testing this year by Aria Alamalhodaei initially revealed on TechCrunch
