Tag: starlink

I tried the T-Mobile Starlink Beta..

I signed up for the free T-Mobile beta that connects your smartphone directly to a SpaceX Starlink satellite—no dish required. It’s a glimpse into what satellite-to-phone communication might look like in the near future, although it’s still limited in what it can actually do right now. You can learn more in my latest video.

The beta is available at no cost, and you don’t need to switch your carrier to try it. In my case, it added an eSIM to my iPhone while keeping my Verizon service intact. After 90 days, it auto-enrolls you in a paid plan, so keep that in mind if you’re a tire kicker like me. Only certain phones are compatible, including the iPhone 13 and newer, Google Pixel 9, along with several Samsung Galaxy and Motorola Razr models.

The satellite signal will only activate if you’re in a complete T-Mobile dead zone. You can’t manually switch to satellite if there’s even a faint tower signal nearby. That was a bit of a letdown, since I was hoping for more flexibility in testing.

There is a good dead zone near the small airport where I take flight lessons. When I parked in the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot, my phone picked up the satellite signal—weak, but functional. Interestingly, the signal worked better inside my car, likely because of the glass roof. As soon as I stepped out, my phone found a ground tower and switched over.

Once connected, my phone displayed “T-Mobile SAT” vs. the LTE or 5G icon I normally see. I received a welcome text confirming I was on satellite and reminding me I could only send and receive text messages.

I tested it by sending a message to my wife, who got it without issue and responded back. The message showed “delivered” almost immediately, which made the experience feel just like using a traditional tower, at least in terms of texting.

That’s really the extent of it. It only supports SMS and iMessage at the moment—no images, no videos, no calls, and no other data activities. T-Mobile says more is coming, but for now, it’s strictly for texts.

I was hoping for a bit more functionality out of the beta—maybe some light data usage or app access—but the reality is that we’re not quite there yet. More direct-to-cell capable Starlink satellites are slowly being added, and once the newer models are in place, T-Mobile’s satellite service will likely grow into something much more usable.

I also looked into Apple’s Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone, which is similar but a bit more involved. You need to manually aim your phone at a satellite and recipients have to opt-in to reply via satellite. Apple’s system is currently free for two years after purchase, though there’s no word yet on what happens after that.

Over the past week, I’ve been running both T-Mobile and Verizon connections on my iPhone to compare network performance since my phone now has T-Mobile’s 5G service. At home, both are mediocre, though T-Mobile edged out Verizon in downstream speed. But in better-served areas, T-Mobile showed a stronger upload rate.

I hope additional satellite functionality gets enabled prior to my 90 day trial expiring. If more features are added before then I will definitely post a followup.

Starlink to Start Throttling Users

Via Michael Baylor on Twitter, it looks like Starlink is going to begin throttling users who consume more than 1TB of data transfers in a month.

Those who go beyond the allocation will be “depriortized” for the remainder of the month and will likely experience degraded connection speeds.

Here’s the notice Baylor received today:

Starlink will not run the bandwidth meter between 11pm and 7 am at the moment, so night owls should be ok for now.

It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll manage the continued growth of the service. I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

See my Starlink videos here!

Starlink Goes Mobile for RV Owners

Starlink is now available for RV owners and others who find themselves always on the road in need of good connectivity. The new RV service plan will allow for users to start and stop service as needed and will cost $135 monthly. This is compared to the $99 service offering that’s locked to a fixed address.

Starlink’s Service Availability as of May 24, 2022

While the service is available throughout many parts of the world there are pockets without connectivity. In the map above a good portion of the central United States is currently not available for service. So it’s possible RV owners will still find pockets where they can’t get connectivity. The service map can be found here.

Service availability will improve over time as SpaceX continues to launch large batches of satellites each month.

SpaceX is also working on getting Starlink installed on aircraft which should be a significant upgrade over current satellite and ground based systems on commercial airliners. But SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that service for vehicles in motion is not yet reliable enough to roll it out to a larger customer base.

Starlink Holding Up Against Russian Cyberattacks

Starlink has become a key communication tool for the Ukrainian military and the Russians are having a hard time detecting and jamming it. As we’ve found in our Starlink coverage the service is remarkably easy to connect to and offers bandwidth on par with low to mid range cable Internet services.

Elon Musk in a tweet today says that the satellite network has so far resisted Russian jamming and hacking attempts. Starlink’s network engineers are up against a tough adversary with state level resources so they no doubt will have to remain on their toes.

The service doesn’t work as well in the eastern part of the country as the satellite network still relies on ground stations to connect users to the Internet. But SpaceX is working on a laser based orbital relay that would bypass many ground stations to route traffic. At some point we might see SpaceX launch servers into positions to act as CDNs for streaming services, etc.