T-Mobile customers can finally sign up to try out SpaceX’s Starlink wireless service, giving them access to satellite-based messaging early next year.

The wireless carrier today opened registration for a beta program designed to test satellite connectivity for phones. This comes after the FCC cleared SpaceX’s cellular Starlink satellites for commercial operations last month.

“The T-Mobile Starlink Beta program is open and free to all T-Mobile postpaid voice customers with a compatible device,” the carrier says. “The beta provides a historical foretaste of a not-too-distant future that is largely free of cellular radio dead zones.”

Starlink’s Direct to Cell service promises to end dead zones by using SpaceX’s satellites as orbiting cell towers, giving customers the ability to receive a signal even in rural and remote areas. Specifically, T-Mobile says satellite connectivity will work on “500,000 square miles of land in the United States that is not covered by ground-based cell towers.”

SpaceX’s tests have shown that the satellites can transmit download rates of up to 17 Mbps and send signals capable of reaching phones near a window or in the user’s pocket. “Among other things, the satellites were able to communicate with multiple models of unmodified Samsung, Apple and Google devices using (T-Mobile’s) PCS-G block spectrum,” the company said in March. Additionally, the technology was used in October to send emergency text messages to hurricane victims in the southeastern United States.

The Starlink mobile service is limited to satellite-based text messaging for now, but support for voice and data is planned. Still, T-Mobile noted, “The experience is expected to be much more user-friendly than other satellite messaging services currently on the market.” For example, users won’t have to hold their phone up to the sky to look for a signal to search. Both incoming and outgoing messages are sent and received like any other message.”

It’s unclear how many T-Mobile subscribers will be invited into the program. But the airline says it will give priority to people who work in emergency services. In New Zealand this week, local mobile operator One NZ also plans to offer access to Starlink mobile service to customers in the country.

When it comes to market, we’ll be interested to see how T-Mobile’s cellular Starlink technology performs and compares to Apple’s satellite-based emergency messaging. SpaceX recently completed the first stage of the cellular Starlink constellation, which currently includes over 340 satellites in orbit.

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years – I started as a schools and city reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.

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