The end of cellular dead zones? Starlink sends the first text messages to phones
Just six days after the launch of the first wave of Direct to Cell satellites, Starlink has successfully sent and received a text message between two unmodified smartphones on the ground – marking the beginning of the end for cellular dead zones.
Most normal modern phones can’t communicate with satellites, and phones that can – like the iPhone 15 – can’t use satellites like cell towers. Often satellites are only accessible to emergency services and you must point your phone at the satellite to send the message.
Thanks to a ground-based relay system and custom-built satellites, Starlink has been able to bypass this technical hurdle and make satellite messaging seemingly as simple as regular text messaging. Well, at least from the copywriter’s perspective.
Starlink hasn’t revealed much about its first-ever space-relayed text, other than that the experiment was a success. We don’t know how long it took for messages to complete the entire journey, whether the conversion rate was 100%, or what exactly the very first message was.
In a image of the text chain shared on Twitter (now to look like a real conversation. As such, the first message could be a little more technical and a lot less fun than a misspelled Hello.
We also don’t know exactly when the service will be rolled out. It’s still awaiting FCC approval in the US, but the company is looking to launch Starlink mobile service for T-Mobile customers sometime in 2024 – with voice calling and mobile data hopefully following in 2025.
There’s no word yet on when it will come to other parts of the world, but we’re hoping we won’t have to wait long.
Texts between two phones sent via our Direct to Cell satellites in space pic.twitter.com/jd8b7uiZSqJanuary 11, 2024
One little text for man
There is still much further to go with the technology, and beyond Starlink’s own confession there are many hurdles to overcome when it comes to voice and data – these services need to be much more consistently reliable than texting. But this recent success of orbiting cell towers is a major step forward toward completely eliminating cellular dead zones.
We’ve already seen how impactful satellite messaging has been in the latest iPhones. There are quite a few stories online about people using the service to get help when they otherwise would have had no other choice. However, it takes time for new phone hardware to reach everyone.
Starlink’s approach of switching cell towers to cell phones could help more people get access to satellite messaging faster. Furthermore, as we mentioned above, it offers people a service that is more in line with the kind of connectivity we expect from terrestrial cell towers.
We’ll have to wait and see how technology and regulations evolve, but the days of signal loss in remote parts of the world may be numbered.