T-Mobile will officially launch its public Starlink satellite service on Wednesday, July 23. Currently in beta testing, the service will be available for any mobile phone user with a compatible device, including AT&T and Verizon subscribers.
In its Monday news release, the Uncarrier explained what Starlink will offer. From the get-go, iOS and Android users alike will be able to send SMS text messages. Other features include MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), picture messaging, and short audio clips. Initially, these richer options will be accessible only to Android users, but iOS support will follow.
Also: T-Mobile will give you a iPhone 16 Pro on them, no trade in required – here’s how
T-Mobile will also provide Starlink subscribers with 911 texting via satellite. Later in the year, that capability will expand to any mobile user with a compatible device, even customers on other carriers and those who don’t subscribe to Starlink.
Starting Oct. 1, the service will finally be able to handle data. To do that, T-Mobile is working with a few third-party providers to let you use their programs while connected to Starlink. The list focuses on apps you’d most need while traveling in unfamiliar regions. That includes AccuWeather, AllTrails, Apple, Google, WhatsApp, and X, with more slated for the future. App developers who’d like to jump on the bandwagon can contact T-Mobile at SatelliteApps@T-Mobile.com.
Experience Beyond subscribers
Starlink coverage will be free to T-Mobile Experience Beyond subscribers, who pay around $100 a month per line for unlimited texting and data and a host of perks. All other mobile phone customers, including those on AT&T and Verizon plans, will pay $10 per month. That monthly $10 fee is lower than the amounts the carrier had previously stated — $15 for other T-Mobile customers and $20 for AT&T and Verizon customers. The Uncarrier seems to have dropped the price as an incentive to coax more people to sign up.
Though the service will be accessible to any mobile user, you will need a relatively recent phone. T-Mobile has suggested that any phone from the last four years will do the trick.
Also: Is T-Mobile secretly recording your phone’s screen? How to check and turn it off
Since January, T-Mobile’s Starlink satellite service has been available as a free beta program. At first, the service was accessible only to T-Mobile subscribers but then expanded to AT&T and Verizon customers in February.
T-Mobile touted the beta as “incredibly successful,” with almost 1.8 million people signing up, including tens of thousands from Verizon and AT&T. More than 1 million texts have been sent from areas otherwise uncovered by a terrestrial provider. Those include such spots as national parks and oil fields.
<!–>
How to try T-Mobile’s Starlink
If you haven’t yet signed up for the beta and would like to try it out, fill out the form on T-Mobile’s Starlink page.–> You’ll then have to wait to see if you get access before the beta ends in July.
Also: You can get a free $349 Starlink kit if you live in one of these US states
T-Mobile’s Starlink uses a network of 657 direct-to-cell low-Earth orbit satellites to provide coverage in remote areas, including the 500,000 square miles of land in the U.S. not covered by cell towers. Accessing the Starlink service is seamless. If you lose cellular coverage, your phone will automatically connect to a Starlink satellite to provide internet access.
This differs from Apple’s satellite-based iPhone emergency service, which requires you to manually activate it.
One more thing
While announcing that T-Satellite launches in July, T-Mobile also revealed that it has partnered with DoorDash to offer eligible wireless customers a free year of DashPass via the T-Life app, beginning July 8, as part of its Magenta Status perks<!–>. A monthly DashPass subscription costs $9.99, while an annual subscription is $96, which means you save about $8 per month with this benefit.
Get the morning’s top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.
–>
Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
