The launch of Starlink’s long-awaited satellite cellular service, Direct-to-Cell, will reportedly begin rolling out for SMS in 2024, according to a promotional site recently published by the company. Over time, the system will “enable ubiquitous access to texting, calling and navigation wherever you are on land, lakes or coastal waters” and will connect to IoT devices via the LTE standard.
Starlink has partnered with T-Mobile on the project, which was originally announced last August at the “Coverage and Above and Beyond” event. The collaboration sees T-Mobile reserving a portion of its 5G spectrum for use by Starlink’s second-generation satellites; Starlink will in turn allow T-Mobile phones to access the satellite network providing the cellular service provider “almost complete coverage” from United States.
During the event last August, the CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk tweeted that “Starlink V2” would be launched this year on select mobile phones, as well as in Tesla vehicles. “The important thing about this is that it means there are no dead zones anywhere in the world for your cell phone,” Musk. said in a press release At the time. “We are incredibly excited to do this with T-Mobile.” That estimate was revised during a roundtable in March at the Satellite Conference and Exhibition 2023when SpaceX’s Starlink Enterprise Sales VP Jonathan Hofeller estimated Testing, not commercial operation, would begin in 2023..
The existing constellation of 4,265 satellites is not compatible with the new cellular service, so Starlink will have to launch an entirely new series of microsatellites with the necessary eNodeB modem installed in the coming years. As more satellites are launched, additional voice and data features will become available.
As a dedicated satellite messaging service, Direct-to-Cell will immediately find competition from Apple, with its Emergency SOS via Satellite feature in iOS 14, as well as Qualcomm rival Snapdragon Satellite, which sends text messages to Android phones from the orbit using Iridium. constellation. Competition is expected to be fierce in this emerging market, Charles Miller, CEO of Lynk Global, noted during the March event, arguing that cellular satellite service could potentially be the “largest category in satellite.”
