SpaceX and T-Mobile send first texts via Starlink satellites


SpaceX founder Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert on stage throughout a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint occasion in Boca Chica Beach, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2022.

Michael Gonzalez | Getty Images

SpaceX efficiently despatched textual content messages via Starlink satellites utilizing T-Mobile’s community, it introduced Wednesday, as Elon Musk’s firm goals to deliver its direct-to-device cell service to market within the coming 12 months.

The latest take a look at comes as main gamers pursue the market to connect unmodified phones directly to satellites, a nascent subsector of the house economic system.

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SpaceX final week launched the first six Starlink satellites outfitted with direct-to-device, or D2D, capabilities, after receiving authorization from the Federal Communications Commission final month to check the expertise.

The firm stated it carried out the texting demonstration on Monday — through which SpaceX “despatched and obtained our first textual content messages to and from unmodified cell telephones on the bottom to our new satellites in house” — and declared the take a look at “validates” that “the system works.”

The firm stated “there may be unbelievable demand and excessive curiosity” in including D2D capabilities to its Starlink community, noting its partnerships with cellular operators together with T-Mobile, Canada’s Rogers, Australia’s Optus and Japan’s KDDI.

SpaceX plans to start providing D2D textual content service this 12 months and expects to broaden with voice, information and web of issues companies in 2025. So far, the corporate has grown Starlink web service to a community of greater than 5,000 satellites in orbit, boasting greater than 2.3 million clients worldwide.

Several smartphone makers, service suppliers and satellite tv for pc firms have partnered on rolling out D2D service. For instance, Apple is spending heavily to offer its “Emergency SOS with Satellite” service, which it rolled out with iPhone 14 fashions, because of work with satellite tv for pc operator Globalstar.

Qualcomm ended its partnership with satellite tv for pc communications firm Iridium late final 12 months, with the latter on Wednesday pivoting to a brand new effort it calls “Project Stardust.” Iridium plans to check its D2D service in 2025 and start rolling it out by 2026.

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