The firms revealed plans on Thursday to connect customers’ mobile phones directly to satellites in orbit, using Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to offer mobile users with network access in some areas of the United States.
Musk announced the new plans at a flashy event on Thursday at his company’s south Texas rocket facility. The new plans, which would coexist with T-current mobile’s cellular services, would do away with the need for cell towers and offer service for sending texts and images where cell coverage is not currently available, key for emergency situations in remote areas.
T-mid-band Mobile’s spectrum will be utilised by Starlink’s satellites to build a new network. The majority of the company’s customers’ phones will be compatible with the new service, which will launch with messaging services by the end of next year in a beta phase.
In comparison to competitors OneWeb and Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN.O) Project Kuiper, SpaceX has launched almost 3,000 low-Earth orbiting Starlink satellites since 2019.
When completely constructed, SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket will launch the first of its next-generation Starlink satellites, which will have larger antennae that will enable direct communication to mobile phones on the T-mobile network, according to Musk.
“We are building a unique antenna. They are essentially very large, highly sophisticated antenna, he explained. The crucial point is that you won’t need to purchase a new phone. Your current phone will function.
American telecom companies are currently competing to build out the mid-band component of their 5G networks in order to catch up to T-Mobile, which just acquired rival Sprint and acquired a sizable 2.5 GHz of mid-band spectrum.
Because it offers a fair combination of capacity and coverage, mid-band, also known as C-Band, has proven to be the ideal band for 5G.
After the messaging services beta phase, the carrier stated that it intends to pursue voice and data coverage.
A worldwide cellular broadband network in space is also being built by satellite communications company AST SpaceMobile Inc (ASTS.O), which will work with mobile devices without the need for additional gear.
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