{"id":522861,"date":"2024-01-26T07:29:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T05:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=522861"},"modified":"2024-01-26T07:33:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T05:33:08","slug":"starlink-could-get-first-cellular-users-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/522861-starlink-could-get-first-cellular-users-in-2024.html","title":{"rendered":"Starlink could get first cellular users in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T-Mobile US Inc. may offer space-connected mobile devices to customers this year as its partnership with SpaceX bears fruit, the carrier\u2019s leader said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX in early January\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-01-03\/spacex-launches-first-cell-service-satellites-with-t-mobile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">launched<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the initial batch of satellites capable of offering mobile phone service.<\/p>\n<p>Operating like a cell tower in space, the Starlink satellites will work with users\u2019 existing phones, rather than using specialized equipment.<\/p>\n<p>The new services aim to offer connections using normal consumer mobile phones, rather than expensive wireless equipment that has been available for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Carriers say the satellite-linked phones will likely be used in remote areas where cell reception is poor or nil, and say the services can be used to summon help if needed.<\/p>\n<p>T-Mobile is the first of several terrestrial telecommunications operators to enter into agreements with SpaceX to use its Direct-to-Cell service in areas with no tower coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Capabilities will begin with texts and progress to picture-messaging and talk, T-Mobile chief executive officer Mike Sievert told investors on an earnings call.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf things go well, we should have these capabilities in customer hands this year,\u201d Sievert said.<\/p>\n<p>Companies<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-01-03\/spacex-launches-first-cell-service-satellites-with-t-mobile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are vying<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to tap the market for satellite-enabled calls offering connections to normal consumer mobile phones. AT&amp;T Inc. has partnered with satellite operator AST SpaceMobile Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX launched\u00a0the initial batch of satellites capable of offering mobile phone service in early January. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":511252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[11373,80941,72032,11375,48987,89960,2460],"class_list":["post-522861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-elon-musk","tag-mike-sievert","tag-satellite-phone","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-starlink-direct-to-cell","tag-t-mobile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}