SpaceX and T-Mobile recently announced an ambitious plan to provide ubiquitous connectivity from space to anyone with a mobile phone. The project would match SpaceX’s Starlink satellite technology with the United States’ second largest wireless operator, T-Mobile US, and its midband spectrum, mobile network and vast customer base.
The provision of space-to-earth internet to cell phones will require SpaceX to finalize development of its second generation of Starlink satellites. These will be significantly larger than the current ones, which have a mass of around 295kg. The founder and SpaceX chief engineer Elon Musksaid the project could enter “beta service” before the end of 2023.
During a live event at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas, where the company is building and testing its next-generation Starship rocket, Musk appeared alongside T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert. The event had a concert vibe, with a smoke machine, fireworks and lots of people mingling on stage in black T-shirts.
Only, these T-shirts bore the magenta and white SpaceX T-Mobile logos, and three prototype spaceships peeked out in the background. Companies aim to provide a service dreamed of since the advent of cell phones: no dead zone. “Our vision is that if you have a clear view of the sky, you are connected”Sievert said.
SpaceX and T-Mobile explain how it would work
Currently, a user of SpaceX’s Starlink service must have a dish-shaped terminal capable of eliminating broadband Internet from one of the 2,800 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit. Existing satellites are not powerful enough to connect to much smaller cell phones, since the signal is too weak.
The solution to this problem is to use a much more powerful phased array antenna on the second version, or V2, of the Starlink satellites. Musk said the bodies of these satellites would be about 7 meters long and the antenna would open to be about 5 meters on each side, or “About 25 square meters”. As the satellite passes over your head, this antenna will send and receive data along a focused beam that will pass across the planet’s surface.
Initially, at least, the service will not provide broadband Internet service. But in a typical utility cell, it should provide 2 to 4 megabits of data, enough for thousands of voice calls or millions of text messages. This would allow connectivity in off-grid areas or during emergency situations such as when a hurricane disrupts service to a community.
A user’s cell phone would first seek service from a cell phone tower, but if the service is not detected, instead of leaving the user with no service bars, the phone will begin searching for the signal from space. So it would attract connectivity from the nearest available satellitewith the software on the satellite communicating with the mobile phone as if it were a virtual repeater on the ground.
Sievert said that T-Mobile plans to offer this service to its users for free on most of its existing plans, initially covering the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as much of the world’s oceans. He has invited foreign mobile network operators to collaborate with T-Mobile and SpaceX and to offer mutual roaming around the world.
Beyond regulatory issues, SpaceX faces several major challenges to make this work. Chief among these is the design and construction of large satellites capable of talking to cell phones.
“These are the most advanced antennas in the world, we think”Musk said. “They must pick up a very quiet signal from your cell phone. Imagine, that signal has to travel 500 miles, and then be captured by a satellite traveling at 17,000 mph. The satellite has to compensate for the Doppler effect of moving so fast. “
Satellites must also enter space. The V2 satellites are too large for the payload fairing of the Falcon 9 rocket, which is 5 meters in diameter. Then the full-size Starlink V2 satellites will have to wait for the Starship rocket, much bigger, you become online. SpaceX is working to do just that at the Starbase facility in South Texas, but operational launches will likely be in at least a year.
To that end, if Starship’s development doesn’t happen as planned, Musk said SpaceX could develop a Starlink satellite. “V2 mini” which could fit the Falcon 9 rocket payload fairing. But it seems clear that bringing the kind of global connectivity Musk and Sievert have talked about will require a fully operational spaceship launch system.
In his comments, Musk acknowledged that the company has a lot of technical work to do, but said the SpaceX teams have made great progress. “So it’s really a rather difficult technical challenge”, he said. “But we are testing it in the lab and are confident it will work in the field. So actually it will involve loading a lot of extra hardware on the satellites, and it’s also a lot of software. It is a difficult problem ”.
The competition
SpaceX has already launched satellites for a competitor in this area, Lynk, and is expected to launch the demonstration satellite “BlueWalker 3” for another company, AST Space Mobile, by the end of the year. Both of these companies are attempting to provide direct cell phone service.
Lynk says he has already successfully demonstrated the ability to use regular unmodified cell phones to connect to satellite Internet services. The company currently has an operational satellite in space, but plans to launch more to deliver a wider coverage area.
“Elon said it’s difficult, and it was only done in the lab, but Lynk has already done it in space”Charles Miller, Lynk’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in an interview Thursday evening. “The only company in the world that has done it”.
Lynk has 14 commercial contracts with mobile network operators spanning 35 countries, Miller said. The company plans to receive a license from the US Federal Communications Commission later this year to begin selling commercial services in those countries.
While Lynk has an advantage and AST Space Mobile a satellite ready for demonstration testing, the entry of SpaceX and T-Mobile, two of the world’s leaders in space flight and connectivity, has created a whole new level of competition. Plausibly, they could do it, given that SpaceX has already deployed the largest constellation of satellites in the world and the company has a history of delivering its new rockets.
Musk and Sievert seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage and talking about other ways the two companies could collaborate. Starlink, for example, might provide “Backhaul” to remote cell towers on Earth. This means that the satellites would connect those towers to the internet without T-Mobile having to connect the cables to the towers.
And perhaps, one day, T-Mobile could become the first cellular service provider on Mars. “We would like to have T-Mobile on Mars”Musk joked during the event.
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