SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space navigation company, is already making a move to begin testing its new mobile phone coverage service this year using Starlink satellites.
Through the use of sat-to-cell technology, mobile phone operators will be able to have coverage beyond the usual areas, eliminating shadow areas and enabling coverage areas where it is usually impossible to obtain it, such as in forests, mountains , and even areas far away from urban centers.
Marking the future in mobile telephony
Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of enterprise sales for Starlink, just spoke at the Satellite Conference and Exhibition 2023, noting that the company is now ready to begin testing, adding that:
We are going to learn a lot by doing – not necessarily over-analyzing – and going out, working with the telcos
Although he has not mentioned specific telecommunications companies, it should be remembered that last August, Elon Musk himself and the CEO of T-Mobile, Mike Sievert, announced the launch of a joint initiative.
Back then they promised the launch of T-Mobile devices compatible with Starkink mobile coverage, and that Starlink V2 will be launched this year, enabling direct transmission to mobiles, “eliminating dead zones around the world”, allowing T- Mobile offer “almost complete” coverage in most of the United States.
As a starting point to reach other connected devices
The rest of the meeting participants are also enthusiastic about the arrival of this new service as the beginning of a new era in communications, highlighting voices such as Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, who points out that the mobile satellite service will be only the beginning, further adding that “satellite should connect everything everywhere,” looking to a future where satellite connectivity is also present in cars, computers, and other electronic devices.
There is no doubt that this could mark a before and after in communications through the use of mobile phones, leaving the lack of coverage for history, and covering all kinds of permanently connected devices from anywhere in the world.
It is now a matter of the new service being tested being put into practice and the results being made known to make it possible to know to what extent the mobile telephony market will change in the short, medium and long term.
Via: Engadget