Bloomberg News revealed that T-Mobile US Inc. is entering into a partnership with SpaceX of Elon Musk to extend wireless phone service in the US’s remote parts where the coverage is spotty.
What is This All About?
Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile, Mike Sievert, and Musk announced the alliance Thursday evening at Boca Chica, Texas, at SpaceX’s Starbase. The service will be launched next year and will be compatible with the existing phones for free. The customers on the lower-priced plans may have to shell out an additional fee.
Musk also said the service, which mainly leverages the Starlink satellites of SpaceX, will be able to handle images and messages, and even small video files. However, it warned that it might take longer for the transmissions, which can take up to 30 minutes in the initial phases of the rollout. This will be followed by voice capabilities which will be made available later.
SpaceX has been designing specific antennae which will remain attached to second-generation internet satellites of the company to enable T-Mobile customers to connect correctly. V2 satellites are to be launched on SpaceX’s Starship rocket, and these rockets are still in the development stage.
Bloomberg News reports that Musk announced that satellite-based services would work even when there are hurricanes and natural disasters make traditional cell phone towers inactive during these times. He said that it would immensely help those people that get stranded in the world’s remote parts.
The billionaire also added that there is an offer from SpaceX for “an open invitation”, for the carriers to work with Starlink. The service he revealed may ultimately be working in space.
Later, Musk tweeted that this service will be compatible with Tesla Inc. vehicles so drivers can make emergency calls and text whenever required.
Initially, SpaceX’s Starlink division business model was to offer broadband internet to those rural areas that the landline providers are not serving. There is a fleet of 2,800 satellites in the lower Earth orbit launched in the past few years.
T-Mobile is developing one of the country’s largest 5G networks for providing faster internet connections to homes and phones.
