T-mobile’s Starlink Messaging Service Is Now Free To Try, Even If You Aren’t On T-mobile

T-Mobile’s Starlink-powered direct-to-cell outer messaging activity is now unfastened for anyone successful nan US to effort for free — including group who aren’t T-Mobile customers. The activity will beryllium constricted to matter messaging astatine first but nan institution hopes to personification immoderate apps and moreover constricted multimedia support caller by nan clip it goes unrecorded this summer.

It will costs T-Mobile users $15 per play erstwhile nan free testing play ends successful July, aliases $10 for customers who participated successful nan beta trial. Verizon and AT&T customers tin too effort nan activity for free according to T-Mobile’s spot release, and will net $20 a play per line. T-Mobile customers paying for nan carrier’s priciest Go5G Next strategy (which starts astatine $105 per month) will personification nan Starlink characteristic baked successful astatine nary further cost.

If you watched past night’s Super Bowl, past you mightiness personification been misled by T-Mobile’s ad. While it showcased satellite-supported sound and multimedia messaging capabilities, nan nationalist beta proceedings only includes texting successful dormant zones for now. Support for image messages, data, and sound calls is “coming later.”

Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy, and products told The Washington Post that messages pinch photos aliases video clips will beryllium added by nan extremity of nan beta play successful July. Katz too expects nan outer activity to activity pinch apps that “don’t require super-fast accusation connections,” specified arsenic definite trail/mapping services and WhatsApp.

“We’ll beryllium moving pinch a bunch of app manufacturers to create features successful their apps that tin optimize to nan disposable bandwidth of nan outer network,” Katz said.

Registrations for nan free beta opened successful December, aft T-Mobile and Starlink tested direct-to-cell emergency alerts and texts successful disaster zones past year. T-Mobile says it’s accepting users who registry connected a “rolling first-come, first-served basis,” but softly discloses that location are “limited spots available” successful nan bully print. The Starlink-enabled activity useful connected “most smartphones from nan past 4 years” according to T-Mobile, which lists presently compatible devices from Apple, Google, Motorola, Samsung, and REVVL connected its website.

SpaceX is partnering pinch carriers astir nan world for direct-to-cell Starlink services. In December it launched nationwide successful New Zealand. AST SpaceMobile, which is partnering pinch Verizon and AT&T connected their rival satellite-to-cell services, precocious received regulatory support to statesman testing.