With uncharacteristic subtlety, Elon Musk posted a tweet yesterday that simply said, “This post was sent through a SpaceX Direct-to-Cell satellite in space with no special equipment in between!” It was a milestone in an effort that was announced in August last year when, with considerably more fanfare, Musk and T-Mobile’s CEO and President Mike Sievert announced a “breakthrough plan” to create a world with “no more cell phone dead zones.”
“It feels very surreal that the team is now walking around the SpaceX campus texting each other from our off-the-shelf, and unmodified, test phones sending normal 4G LTE data packets up to our first six satellites and back down to the other test phones,” tweeted Ben Longmier, Sr. Director, Satellite Engineering at SpaceX.
Leveraging Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, and T-Mobile’s wireless network, the companies said they would provide customers with text coverage “practically everywhere in the continental U.S., Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters,” even outside the signal of T-Mobile’s network. The service will be offered 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,” according to SpaceX. Eventually, the companies said they plan to pursue the addition of voice and data coverage, and T-Mobile committed to offer reciprocal roaming with other providers.
The Starlink satellites are equipped with custom silicon, phased-array antennas, and advanced software algorithms that overcome the challenges posed by the long distances and speed of the satellites.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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