SpaceX sent and received its first text messages sent through T-Mobile using its Starlink D2D (direct-to-device) satellites launched just over a week ago, the company Announced. The project, first revealed in August 2022, aims to provide satellite Internet connectivity to regular cell phones so that T-Mobile customers can stay online even when they are in a terrestrial dead zone.
T-Mobile said it aims to publicly launch text services with T-Mobile in 2024, with voice, data and IoT (Internet of Things) plans arriving in 2025. Globally, SpaceX has partnered with Rogers on Canada, Australia's Optus, KDDI in Japan and others.
The plan calls for special larger versions of the Starlink satellites with D2D capability. SpaceX launched the first six on January 2 and completed the first tests without problems. "On Monday, January 8, less than 6 days after launch, we sent and received our first text messages to and from unmodified cell phones on the ground to our new satellites in space using the TMobile network spectrum… (indicating that) the system works," SpaceX wrote in a blog post.
When the plan was announced, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said the technology is like putting a cell phone tower in the sky. He added that it could one day eliminate dead zones, allowing people to easily contact their loved ones even if they are in the middle of the ocean.
However, SpaceX said the system, which uses LTE/4G (not 5G protocols), is a little more complicated than cell towers in the sky. Since satellites move at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour relative to Earth, data must be transmitted seamlessly between them. You also have to take into account Doppler shift, time delays, and the relatively low transmission power of smartphones.
The two companies are not the first to test a system of this type. Working with communications specialist AST SpaceMobile, AT&T successfully made the first two-way satellite audio call on its network in April, calling a number in Japan using a stock Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone. AT&T also complained to the FCC that SpaceX and T-Mobile's plan was "unfortunately insufficient" on the risk of harmful interference to terrestrial networks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-and-t-mobile-send-the-first-text-messages-from-orbiting-starlink-satellites-103526219.html?src=rss
