We all know that scenario when we’re trapped in the middle of nowhere, and there’s no signal on our phone’s cellular networks. Elon Musk seems to have the solution to that issue as well. The upcoming connectivity plan known as Coverage Above and Beyond represents the partnership between SpaceX and T-Mobile.
According to space.com, if everything goes as planned, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network will start beaming service directly to smartphones. This means that there will be no such thing as the so-called “dead zones” anymore. Both Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, and Mike Sievert, the CEO, and president of T-Mobile, confirmed the plan.
People should start benefiting from Coverage Above and Beyond starting in 2023
The plan should start working at some point next year. Starlink still needs to send a special type of satellite into orbit for the plan to work – Starlink version 2, to be more precise. Those are satellites about 4 times heavier than those that SpaceX has already sent into orbit. There are about 3,000 Starlink satellites that already exist above the Earth’s atmosphere.
Even a special antenna will be needed for the new satellites, and Elon Musk explained more, as space.com quotes:
They’re the most advanced phased-array antennas in the world, we think,
The antennas have to be extremely advanced, because they’ve got to pick up a very quiet signal from your cellphone,
And you can imagine, that signal’s gotta travel 500 miles [800 km] and then be caught by a satellite that’s traveling 17,000 miles [27,350 km] an hour. And the satellite’s got to compensate for the Doppler effect of moving so fast. So this is really quite a difficult technical challenge. But we have it working in the lab, and we’re confident this will work in the field.
Assuming that the Coverage Above and Beyond plan will indeed work, those who are T-Mobile users and wish to benefit won’t need to purchase any additional device.