T-Mobile to Expand Coverage With the Help of SpaceX's Starlink Satellites
Sometime before the end of 2023, T-Mobile aims to start augmenting its coverage using an unusual set of cell sites—all moving at about 17,000 miles an hour(Opens in a new window).
On Thursday night, the wireless carrier announced a "Coverage Above and Beyond" plan with SpaceX, which will use its constellation of low-Earth-orbit Starlink broadband satellites to provide messaging for T-Mobile. Voice and data are expected later on.
T-Mobile CEO and President Mike Sievert and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed this project at an event at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, which is streaming live(Opens in a new window). We’ll update this post with more details after the event wraps up.
“It is about solving the biggest pain point in the over-40-year history of our industry,” Sievert said, standing in front of a set of booster and upper stages of SpaceX’s giant, fully reusable Starship rocket.
An advance copy of T-Mobile’s press release says Starlink satellites will use mid-band spectrum compatible with most handsets—a block running from 1.91 to 1.995GHz that T-Mobile picked up with its purchase of Sprint but has yet to move to its 5G network.
“The vast majority of smartphones already on T-Mobile’s network will be compatible with the new service using the device’s existing radio,” the release says, without specifying if this space-hosted service will be 4G or 5G.
The two firms plan to open a beta test of Starlink-routed messaging "in select areas" of the US and its territorial waters, including Hawaii, parts of Alaska, and Puerto Rico, by the end of 2023.
"We expect on our most popular plans for this service to be included for free,” Sievert said.
The release says this messaging support will encompass “SMS, MMS,
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