US wireless carrier T-Mobile and Elon Musk’s SpaceX have jointly announced that Starlink satellites, which will be launched next year, can connect directly to the 5G phones over existing cellular bands. The technology alliance was announced at an event hosted by T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and Tesla CEO Musk at the space company’s Starbase in Texas. It was declared that from next year 5G mobile phones could connect to satellites, which would use a small part of the connection providing around 2-4 Megabits per second connection (in total) across a given coverage area.
Both said that their companies are trying to enable global roaming services in all places where satellite coverage is available. The services may gradually be free of charge for T-Mobile users.
The tech alliance explained
The new service, which will be provided to T-Mobile users along with other plans, would make cell towers redundant. So, users won’t need cell towers around them to send texts and images, except in emergency cases in remote areas. The services will start with texting plans in a beta phase by the end of 2023. Starlink’s satellites will use T-Mobile’s mid-band spectrum to create a new network.
“SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites, the first of which is planned to launch on SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket whenever it is fully developed, will have larger antennae that will allow connectivity directly to mobile phones on the T-mobile network, Musk said.
“It’s a lot like putting a cellular tower in the sky, just a lot harder,” said Sievert. “Your phone doesn’t really know it’s connecting for space. It’ll think it’s connected to a cell tower because that phone is using industry-standard technology communication protocols and it has the spectrum already built in, as the vast majority of phones in circulation today do.”
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As per news reports, the new “satellite-to-cellular service” will be available everywhere in the continental US, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico, and territorial waters. With time, T-Mobile customers can use these connections when they go to other countries. As per news reports, since 2019, SpaceX has launched nearly 3,000 low-Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites, surpassing its rivals OneWeb and Amazon.com Inc’s AMZN.O Project Kuiper.
Musk added that the new satellites have “big, big antennas” that are about 5 to 6 meters across to enable the new connections.
Both said for the launch of this service they are looking for partners globally who will be keen on reciprocal spectrum sharing agreements so that their customers can link up with SpaceX.
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Later, Musk tweeted that one of his other companies, Tesla, will use the technology for the premium connectivity feature in its electric vehicles. At present, Tesla uses AT&T’s network for things like live traffic visualization, satellite-view maps, and music streaming in its electric vehicles.
Most telecom firms in the US are preparing to build up the mid-band portion of their 5G networks to catch up with T-Mobile, which got a considerable amount of mid-band spectrum (2.5 GHz) thanks to a buyout of rival Sprint
Mid-band or C-Band is perfect for 5G rollout as per experts because it can balance the capacity and coverage.
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