T-Mobile to begin beta testing the SpaceX Starlink Cellular Network System

T-Mobile begin a test program of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite messaging and networking platform with satellite text messaging in the present and voice and data in the future.

A new beta program, launched by T-Mobile, allows customers to test an innovative satellite-based messaging for mobile phones offered by SpaceX's Starlink service. The cable follows the commissioning of commercial operations by the Commission.

Beta access will be available to T-Mobile's postpaid voice customers who have devices capable of receiving access to what promises to be a revolutionary new form of mobile networking. With the assistance of SpaceX's satellites acting as cell towers in space, this service will enable communication by mobile device even in places where cell phone coverage is nonexistent. T-Mobile anticipates that service will unleash an additional 500,000 square miles of otherwise unreachable land from terrestrial cell towers.

The initial beta will focus on text messaging, but T-Mobile intends to expand into voice and data in the future. Starlink, with its satellite-based connectivity, already promised up to 17 Mbps of download speed and works with devices not modified for use with it, including Apple, Samsung, and Google phones.

Using this service, T-Mobile customers shall not have to seek signals or hold their phones toward the sky, unlike other satellite messaging systems. The carrier hopes to sign these emergency service workers up for the beta test but will also introduce it to New Zealand users.

As T-Mobile and SpaceX establish networking between their satellite communications, this service really can redefine the landscape of connectivity, especially in remote places where the conventional networking solutions have not had much success.