✔️ 2022-08-26 03:03:00 – Paris/France.
SpaceX and T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS 1,20% said they plan to work together to use the rocket company's satellites to provide connections to T-Mobile TMUS 1,20% cellphones across the states States, even in remote areas without current wireless service.
The companies said Thursday that the new service will use Starlink satellites that SpaceX plans to launch and provide connections to US consumers using wireless spectrum controlled by T-Mobile. The companies said they plan to begin testing text messaging services in select markets before the end of 2023.
The end goal of the partnership is to provide voice and data services anywhere, independent of cell towers, enabling areas not yet reached by wireless networks to get service. That would include places where cellular signals can't reach, like the middle of a national park or a large body of water.
SpaceX's Starlink is facing security complaints from China and rival companies. As Elon Musk says there's plenty of room in space and the race to expand satellite internet networks heats up, the WSJ examines the risks they could pose. Originally published 10/01/2022. Photo illustration: Sharon Shi
"That means there's no dead zone in the world for your cellphones," SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at an event at SpaceX's Texas facility. He said the satellite signal would reach phones in people's pockets or inside a car and could provide basic messaging connections in places hit by natural disaster.
T-Mobile chief executive Mike Sievert said the company expects most current smartphones to work with the new service and expects satellite service to be included for free. its most popular monthly plans.
Remote areas can be expensive to reach with terrestrial wireless networks and contain few paying subscribers to justify the cost. Existing satellite phone services typically require handsets with large antennas and monthly plans that charge per message or per minute.
The new service will use Starlink satellites as cell towers and transmit directly to devices on the ground. T-Mobile will reserve a slice of its midband spectrum for these connections. It will use the radio frequencies in such a way that they can also be used on its ground network.
Mr. Musk said the service would use second-generation Starlink satellites that would be equipped with large antennas covering swathes of land that have no service. Bandwidth would be limited and would not displace existing terrestrial cellular services. "This is intended to provide basic coverage to areas that are completely dead," he said.
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The plan is ambitious in part because it will use existing phones rather than requiring new hardware, and while far-reaching, it will start with texting and messaging apps. Text messages are less taxing on a network than calls or data streaming. The Federal Communications Commission recommends people use text messaging in an emergency situation when wireless calls won't connect, because in many cases text messages will work where phone calls won't.
Reaching the farthest corners has long been a goal of wireless communications where weather, geography and economics can create engineering challenges and high costs. Cell phones connect to wireless networks, but cell towers themselves are usually connected to fiber optic cable which can move large amounts of data more efficiently than wireless signals.
Last year, Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. ended a project that used flying balloons to deliver internet access to hard-to-reach parts of the world. After a decade, the effort was unable to reduce costs enough to make the business viable, Alphabet said.
Companies such as Lynk Global Inc. and AST SpaceMobile Inc. have worked to develop businesses using satellites to provide connections for mobile phones.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as SpaceX is officially known, has been pushing to expand Starlink's reach. The company routinely uses its rockets to blast batches of Starlink satellites into relatively near-Earth orbits, and it reported more than 400 internet service subscribers worldwide in a June filing with the FCC.
In addition to targeting customers who need internet service at home, SpaceX has struck deals with airlines and recently won the right to connect boats, RVs and other moving vehicles.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com and Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
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Appeared in the August 26, 2022 print edition as "T-Mobile, SpaceX Plan To Partner".
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