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

[WarmWinterHat]

Sounds like a much better deal for the phone companies rather than building lots of cell towers.

Not really; it's slow and extremely flaky. I was on the beta, and used it out in the open desert a few times. It would work for a few mins, then drop out for 15, then work again...all the while sucking battery like none-other.

It was basically useless...I'll stick to my inReach plan.

 

[Martin Bland]

The “beta” was anything but. It was a subscription with a free intro period that you needed to remember to cancel at the end of the free period; to avoid being billed monthly - like any other promotional subscription. The “beta” was a marketing campaign.

 

[TNman]

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.

I’ve been successful up in the mountains of Utah and it worked great. I have t mobile but not upgrading plan for this

 

[AppleTO]

No point for Apple users until Apple’s satellite service becomes paid.

 

[jole]

Nice to see that this is included with my business plan as well. Do I need to actually sign up though?

I was in beta. Is there a way to test if the service is enabled in my plan (I have no idea what plan my company has me on) or should I just head to mountains and try it out?

 

[TNman]

I was in beta. Is there a way to test if the service is enabled in my plan (I have no idea what plan my company has me on) or should I just head to mountains and try it out?

I believe it’s only free on business or the highest plan they have, other than that it’s 10.00/month

 

[jole]

I am sure they have like 100 SKUs for business plans. Likely not all of them got this.

 

[Graphate]

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?

[…]

I *think* if you turn off “satellite” connectivity in your cellular data settings (same place as roaming), then it will default to Apple. Otherwise there are situations where the service, at least at the moment, appears to compete.

 

[TheColtr]

If it did data I’d be interested. As of right now Apple’s service is equally useful and free.

 

[Huracan]

I was in the beta program in an area with good regular tower coverage. When I was out of tower coverage I got a few messages to let me know I connected to the satellite service. However, the few times I actually tried to text someone it didn't work very well, extremely slow to the point of useless. I guess in a life or death situation with enough time to send a message it would be useful. For my lifestyle and having an iPhone I'll stick with Apple satellite emergency services and save a few bucks a month. I had signed up for the discounted early adopter promotion, but even the smaller amount of money seemed excessive for slow and finicky performance.

 

[seanmcbay]

It never worked for me once on the beta with my 13 Mini after support was introduced for it so that’s a no from me.

 

[JosephAW]

Didn’t Apple add this to the iPhone 13 as well with iOS 18? Or is that just sos? 📱🌍🛰️

 

[macinsanity]

It never worked for me in the beta. I tried it in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Often I was stuck in “purgatory” where I had too weak of a cellular signal to activate satellite and could not send messages or texts due to the poor cell signal. When satellite did activate it would never send a message. I suspect the mountains were blocking the satellite. Maybe it works better in the desert. I’m definitely not paying for this given it never worked in multiple occasions.

 

[noodledog]

Ewww.. Tmobile and Musk making me use Green Bubbles. I'll lose friends over this!

Huh? No this doesn’t use green bubbles. I did the beta and while there is a delay when it first decides to give up on cell and switched to sat, after that it was basically seamless and I couldn’t tell it wasn’t normal iMessage.

Didn’t Apple add this to the iPhone 13 as well with iOS 18? Or is that just sos? 📱🌍🛰️

No, this works differently (and better). It’s nearly the same as being on towers, but with the huge caveat that it’s text/iMessage only. The Apple/Globstar one requires aiming at a stationary sat every time you want to send or check for messages. I used it on a backpacking trip and I was the only one with this service; the others had the Apple/Globstar. Was much better.

I’m not trying to support the service. Just sharing facts since peeps seem unclear. The beta was nice and I used it a bunch (backpacking/camping and on some highway/canyon roads with some traffics issues to tell family about delays). Not at all convinced I’d pay for it. Maybe for some summer months, but for sure not all year.

If anything, this just caught up to the satellite service we've had built-in since the iPhone 14. What gives?

Not the case. See above.

May be a dumb question but how is this different than the satellites Apple uses when I have no signal?

See above

 

[@Brett]

Missed opportunity to call it SaTellite.

 

[jjk454ss]

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.

How is it that Starlink works then, Starlink sure does more than texting

 

[alexandr]

I was in beta. Is there a way to test if the service is enabled in my plan (I have no idea what plan my company has me on) or should I just head to mountains and try it out?

I think that's the safest way to test it, sadly )

 

[coolfactor]

This doesn't make sense..

The T-Mobile satellite service is limited to texting with iMessage and SMS, and data is not supported.

iMessage is the protocol, which indeed does use data (Wi-Fi or cellular data), and optionally falls back to SMS if a data connection isn't available.

Is T-Satellite making an exception just for iMessage to work, or is the author confusing "iMessage" (the protocol) with "Messages" (the app)?

 

[coolfactor]

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.

Is it the same cell technology? Exactly?

It's kind of amazing that our phones can broadcast a signal to a distant satellite.

 

[tennisproha]

no thanks. I already get it for free via Apple.

 

[iSkippy]

In Canada, Rogers also has this in beta testing right now. No idea who Rogers has as a satellite partner.

How it works is, when you sign up, you get an eSIM that you're supposed to set as your default for messaging. Doesn't seem ideal for someone who might use their second eSIM for a second line, like a business user or someone using a travel eSIM. Works on an iPhone 13 or later.

Again, until Apple starts charging for their service, I see little benefit to Rogers' plan, which will cost $10/month to start, then $15/month.

 

[nutmac]

The business model should follow the legacy SMS business model, as in pay per message ($1/message sent or received), capped at $10/day to guard against heavy volume of inbound messages.

 

[ice29]

I am in free beta of this, with Verizon as my primary line, and it worked a few times I was without signal in extended Bay Area. But I could not make iMessage work, only sms, no idea why (I activated iMessage on that number and added it to my addresses, but no luck - thought it was sms only to be honest). And sms only it’s pretty useless as an additional service if you’re not T-Mobile customer, as it gives you a new number (that none of my relatives/friends know or use).

 

[maasj]

according to TMobile iPhone 13 is supported for Satellite, can you please check @jclo ?

I can confirm that 13s are supported. I used it with my 13 Mini and it worked.

 

[maasj]

No point for Apple users until Apple’s satellite service becomes paid.

Unless you have an iPhone 13. Those are supported by T-Satellite, but not by Apple.