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T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE: TMUS) on Friday announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer wireless phone service in remote parts of America where coverage is spotty.
In a live event with Musk at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Mike Sievert, the chief executive of T-Mobile, said the service will be launched in stages next year and work with existing phones for free on free the company’s most popular plans.
However, customers on lower-priced plans may pay an extra fee.
Musk said the service, which leverages SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, should be able to handle messages, images and possibly small video files but warned that transmissions might take as long as half an hour early in the roll-out. Voice capabilities will come later.
SpaceX is designing special antennae that will be attached to the company’s second-generation internet satellites to allow T-Mobile customers to connect, Musk said.
The satellite-based service will work even during hurricanes and natural disasters that knock out traditional cell phone towers.
The billionaire also offered an “open invitation” to other carriers to work with Starlink.
Musk later tweeted that the service will be added to Tesla Inc vehicles to allow drivers to make emergency calls and texts.
SpaceX’s Starlink division provides broadband internet service to homes, particularly in rural areas not served by landline providers, with the help of a fleet of about 2,800 satellites in low-Earth orbit which it’s launched in the last few years.
T-Mobile is building one of the nation’s largest 5G networks to provide faster internet connections to phones and homes.
The partnership will compete with Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) low-Earth orbit satellite subsidiary Kuiper Systems LLC, which announced a similar agreement with Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) last year.
Picture Credit: CNBC
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