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T-Mobile's Starlink Satellite Service Officially Launches With iPhone Support

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The "T-Satellite" Starlink satellite service that T-Mobile has been testing for the last several months is now out of beta, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced today.

T-Mobile-Starlink.jpg

Satellite-based connectivity is available for T-Mobile subscribers, but it is also an option for Verizon and AT&T users. T-Mobile's offering uses over 650 Starlink satellites to allow users to send text messages when they are out of range of a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

T-Mobile says that its satellite services work with more than 600 smartphones, including iPhones. If you have an iPhone 14 or later, you can use T-Satellite, though these devices already have Apple's built-in satellite functionality that works with Globalstar satellites. You will need iOS 18.3 or later to sign up.

The T-Mobile satellite service is limited to texting with iMessage and SMS, and data is not supported. Apple's built-in satellite service supports sending and receiving messages, sharing location via Find My, connecting with emergency services, getting satellite-based weather updates, and arranging roadside assistance via satellite. Apple does not yet charge for any of its Satellite functionality.

T-Satellite is free for Beyond 5G and Go5G customers, while T-Mobile users with other plans can get the service added to their plans for $10 per month using the Manage Add-Ons option in their accounts. AT&T and Verizon customers can get T-Satellite for $10 per month by contacting T-Mobile customer support. The $10/month pricing is a limited-time promotion, and T-Mobile intends to raise the price to $15 per month in the future.

iPhone users who sign up for T-Mobile's satellite service and connect to a Starlink satellite will see a small "SAT" icon in the status bar

Article Link: T-Mobile's Starlink Satellite Service Officially Launches With iPhone Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/23/t-mobile-starlink-launch/
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MacRumors said:


The "T-Satellite" Starlink satellite service that T-Mobile has been testing for the last several months is now out of beta, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced today.

T-Mobile-Starlink.jpg

Satellite-based connectivity is available for T-Mobile subscribers, but it is also an option for Verizon and AT&T users. T-Mobile's offering uses over 650 Starlink satellites to allow users to send text messages when they are out of range of a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

T-Mobile says that its satellite services work with more than 600 smartphones, including iPhones. If you have an iPhone 14 or later, you can use T-Satellite, though these devices already have Apple's built-in satellite functionality that works with Globalstar satellites. You will need iOS 18.3 or later to sign up.

The T-Mobile satellite service is limited to texting with iMessage and SMS, and data is not supported. Apple's built-in satellite service supports sending and receiving messages, sharing location via Find My, connecting with emergency services, getting satellite-based weather updates, and arranging roadside assistance via satellite. Apple does not yet charge for any of its Satellite functionality.

T-Satellite is free for Beyond 5G and Go5G customers, while T-Mobile users with other plans can get the service added to their plans for $10 per month using the Manage Add-Ons option in their accounts. AT&T and Verizon customers can get T-Satellite for $10 per month by contacting T-Mobile customer support. The $10/month pricing is a limited-time promotion, and T-Mobile intends to raise the price to $15 per month in the future.

iPhone users who sign up for T-Mobile's satellite service and connect to a Starlink satellite will see a small "SAT" icon in the status bar

Article Link: T-Mobile's Starlink Satellite Service Officially Launches With iPhone Support
Click to expand...
according to TMobile iPhone 13 is supported for Satellite, can you please check @jclo ?
 
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MacRumors said:
The T-Mobile satellite service is limited to texting with iMessage and SMS, and data is not supported. Apple's built-in satellite service supports sending and receiving messages, sharing location via Find My, connecting with emergency services, getting satellite-based weather updates, and arranging roadside assistance via satellite
Click to expand...
Which service will this new feature default to? Apples free service or this new T-Mobile service? Will users have an option of switching between which satellite provider they can use if both are available in the same location?

This is an awesome new service and I’m glad that T-Mobile is bringing this to their customer base. I’ve been with them since 2010 and have great service where I live in the Greater Boston area

This will definitely come in handy for when I am hiking, backpacking and camping at national parks
 
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>T-Mobile's offering uses over 650 Starlink satellites to allow users to send text messages when they are out of range of a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

To be clear, that means this Starlink service is messages only, right?
 
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I’ve been a part of the T-Satellite beta for about a month and I have yet to get it to work on my iPhone 13 Pro.

I’ve got the T-Mobile eSIM set as the second active eSIM on my unlocked phone and ‘Satellite’ is turned on for that eSIM. When I travel to areas where I have no service on both the primary eSIM and the T-Mobile eSIM, both lines alternate between showing ‘No Service’ and ‘SOS only’ in the status bar.
 
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Not worth paying extra for unless you are regularly not in cell range. It's a nice to have as an add-on that is free.

I imagine that other telecom companies will probably start adding this to their line of services similar to how T-Mobile has it.
 
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Plutonius said:
Sounds like a much better deal for the phone companies rather than building lots of cell towers.
Click to expand...
nope. this is far worse than you think. the average cell tower is about 2-3 miles from you. this one bolted to something that will fall back to the atmosphere in 5 years will be about 200-300km from you. the service here is not starlink with mmWave - this is plain old cell service.
that means the signal level will be far fainter, so the achieveable bitrate will be minuscule compared to the terrestrial service.
there's nothing special about this, it's the very same cell service, the same frequency bands, same bandwidth, same everything. but it has to cover a far larger area: remember the entire starlink constellation will consist of 40k satellites (if they ever manage to have that much in orbit) that supposedly cover the entire world. tiny countries in europe have about 6-10k cell towers each, so the best thing you can expect from is texting. even voice calls are challenging. this is not mobile broadband.
 
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Arsenikdote said:
I think I might be missing the point? It seems like the T-Mobile offer would only be good for Android users then? Since Apple is offering more for free, regardless of which cell provider you use, why would anyone with an iPhone use the T-Mobile offering, even for free since does less?
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better coverage (650 satellites vs a handful) and the cost is included in some plans.
 
swm said:
nope. this is far worse than you think. the average cell tower is about 2-3 miles from you. this one bolted to something that will fall back to the atmosphere in 5 years will be about 200-300km from you. the service here is not starlink with mmWave - this is plain old cell service.
that means the signal level will be far fainter, so the achieveable bitrate will be minuscule compared to the terrestrial service.
there's nothing special about this, it's the very same cell service, the same frequency bands, same bandwidth, same everything. but it has to cover a far larger area: remember the entire starlink constellation will consist of 40k satellites (if they ever manage to have that much in orbit) that supposedly cover the entire world. tiny countries in europe have about 6-10k cell towers each, so the best thing you can expect from is texting. even voice calls are challenging. this is not mobile broadband.
Click to expand...
true, but your regular cell tower that is 2-3 miles or so away could have thousands of buildings in-between ... whereas that satellite that is 200 or so miles away has nothing in-between.
This is not (yet) positioned as cell replacement rather as coverage where there is no cell. Over time the service will improve and we will see where is is going eventually.
 
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I was in the beta for this and, living in an area with significant areas with no cell coverage, have some interest in it actually working.

At least in my experience, it was functionally useless. When I'd leave cell coverage, I would get an automated text message telling me I was now using satellite service, but I never once managed to receive a text message, and the few times I tried sending one as a test it didn't work.

I am guessing that part of this is related to the no-cell-coverage areas I spend time in being wooded, so there's not very good sky access, but useless is still useless.

Maybe if I was desperate to get an emergency text out, I could manage to get it to work, but for anything resembling normal communication it might as well not have existed.
 
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TNman said:
May be a dumb question but how is this different than the satellites Apple uses when I have no signal?
Click to expand...
Different constellation; Apple uses Globalstar while T-Mobile uses Starlink. The actual "what can I do with it" is the same--send or receive text messages. Not sure if there's a technological difference in the signals they use; I haven't gotten either to work, so can't really compare reliability or ease of use.

Globalstar has 25 satellites while Starlink has upwards of 7000 currently, so in theory it should be much easier to get a signal from a Starlink satellite without waiting for one to come into range of your phone, or for one to hit whatever patch of sky is visible to you.
 
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