T Mobile Starlink Sat Phone

[treillw]

I'm considering switching over from Verizon to T-Mobile. One of the draws is that T-Mobile will be set up with starlink soon. It sounds like this will essentially take the place of an inreach and you will be able to send messages and call from the bowels of Hades.

The salesman said that it will be up and running in February likely, but online research shows is been pending for years. It also sounds like it will be exclusive to T-Mobile at least for the first year.

Anyone have any good information on this?

Update:
I spent way too much of my life fussing with this. T-mobile salesmen have turned out to be real toolbags and keep adding on extra charges, despite my immediate request for a complete upfront out the door price without me modifying anything during the duration of the conversation. The bill went from $160 to $280 without me changing a thing and the salesman standing there talking himself in circles. Amazing. It's easier to buy a car.

I don't see how I can trust them. Will Verizon ever get linked up with "space cell phone towers", like T-mobile? Any idea how long that will be? Sounds like starlink satellites are proprietary to T-mobile for one year, from what I've read.

Thanks!

 

[tdhanses]

Think it was announce about a year and a half ago, they used it for hurricane relief and supposedly it worked flawlessly so I’d assume we’ll see something shortly. Also the new Apple iPhone 16 has this capability and they are giving 2yrs free service for the satellite texting when out of cell coverage, so there will be redundant options since the Apple offer is through the device not network service, so with TMO you’ll have 2 options to connect at some point if you have a new Apple phone.

Many have had good luck with the Apple satellite texting.

 

[butcherboy]

That would be nice with Starlink. My wife and I are thinking of switching to T-Mobile as well just because it’s way cheaper than Verizon.

 

[Z Barebow]

https://www.t-mobile.com/business/industry-solutions/connected-vehicle-network/direct-to-cell-communications-in-remote-areas

 

[Brewski]

My inreach has worked 100% of the time and I have no problem trusting my life to inreach in case of emergency.

Tmobile service and reliability is the opposite. Combined with an unproven and untested entire usa rollout of starlink cell service, immediate ceasing of operations if intereference occurs, and waiting up to 15 minutes to text (occurred for users during Helene) theres no way im trusting my life to this new shiny unproven technology. I'm waiting at least two years of proven reliable service.

 

[JCS271]

My inreach has worked 100% of the time and I have no problem trusting my life to inreach in case of emergency.

Tmobile service and reliability is the opposite. Combined with an unproven and untested entire usa rollout of starlink cell service, immediate ceasing of operations if intereference occurs, and waiting up to 15 minutes to text (occurred for users during Helene) theres no way im trusting my life to this new shiny unproven technology. I'm waiting at least two years of proven reliable service.

EXACTLY!

 

[wapitibob]

I wouldn't switch back to T Mobile from Verizon if it was free. Zoleo has worked 100% of the time.

 

[treillw]

I wouldn't switch back to T Mobile from Verizon if it was free. Zoleo has worked 100% of the time.

What was the issue with t Mobile?

 

[wapitibob]

What was the issue with t Mobile?

Yep, no coverage outside of my home town. Verizon works for me just about anywhere I hunt in the west. I live on the east side of the cascades, nothing but little towns going east and I had no service. This was a number of years ago, it may have gotten better, but I don't know one person who hunts and uses t mobile.

 

[tdhanses]

Yep, no coverage outside of my home town. Verizon works for me just about anywhere I hunt in the west. I live on the east side of the cascades, nothing but little towns going east and I had no service. This was a number of years ago, it may have gotten better, but I don't know one person who hunts and uses t mobile.

Funny, pretty easy to tell you don’t keep up with leaps in technology, Verizon is now 10yrs behind tmobile since the 5G jump.

Spectrum holdings are key and tmobile has a vast portfolio since the merger with sprint.

 

[tdhanses]

My inreach has worked 100% of the time and I have no problem trusting my life to inreach in case of emergency.

Tmobile service and reliability is the opposite. Combined with an unproven and untested entire usa rollout of starlink cell service, immediate ceasing of operations if intereference occurs, and waiting up to 15 minutes to text (occurred for users during Helene) theres no way im trusting my life to this new shiny unproven technology. I'm waiting at least two years of proven reliable service.

I can’t think of a single time it didn’t take 15mins to use an inreach, the inreach is not quick.

I also think the Apple Sat communication has proven fast and reliable already, believe they use the same satts as inreach.

 

[BBob]

I also think the Apple Sat communication has proven fast and reliable already, believe they use the same satts as inreach.

They are not on the same systems. Garmin is on Iridium and Apple is on Globalstar.

My initial tryout for Apple sat comms was a fail. Until everyone in your circle has current phones and software it can't message everyone or in my case no one I wanted to message. It can send an SOS so there's that. Until everyone gets caught up I'm going to stick with the inReach which will message everyone I need to.

 

[180ls1]

I can’t think of a single time it didn’t take 15mins to use an inreach, the inreach is not quick.

I also think the Apple Sat communication has proven fast and reliable already, believe they use the same satts as inreach.

Yeah, criticizing T-Mobile for taking a while when it was turned on before they were ready in order to save lives in a disaster is short sighted.

My Apple Sat was 100% reliable this past month in the Rockies.

That said, I'll probably still wait to dump my inreach. It costs me $100/yr and I already have the device.

 

[BDWMT]

Switched from Verizon to T-Mobile this summer on my personal iphone. Still have Verizon for my work iPhone. Strange to see where one works and the other doesn’t in SW MT where I am. Wouldn’t say either is a clear winner. Was not impressed at all with satellite messaging with the iPhone this fall. Inreach is still the more reliable option. Looking forward to starlink with T-Mobile. Should be the clear winner but time will tell.

 

[Gregflier]

I have had good luck with Satellite texting on an IPhone 15Pro (works with iPhone 14 and newer). After a poor trial with T-Mobile 10 years ago I have dismissed them but it is good to hear they may now be a good option. I assume it will take a few years for Starlink to launch enough cellular compatible satellites for the network to be robust (although texting might work well pretty soon).
I am happy with my recent IPhone for satellite texting and a 406 mhz PLB as a backup for emergencies mostly to avoid extra subscriptions. I believe that the new Garmin inReach operates on a faster more reliable frequency band and is the gold standard for people willing to pay the subscription and carry an extra device.

 

[Touchdown88]

As a TMobile customer, I've been patiently waiting for this feature. Will I get rid of my Zoleo? Probably not for a while, but I hope that phone to satellite communication helps me to remove one piece of gear from my pack.

 

[tdhanses]

Yeah, criticizing T-Mobile for taking a while when it was turned on before they were ready in order to save lives in a disaster is short sighted.

My Apple Sat was 100% reliable this past month in the Rockies.

That said, I'll probably still wait to dump my inreach. It costs me $100/yr and I already have the device.

You mean criticizing Starlink, they provide that service for t-mobile and Elon had to approve its use and it wasn’t even a live service in use, so yeah I think it was better then nothing.

I haven’t had a chance to use the apple service yet but like everything it is newer service and will only get better.

 

[tdhanses]

Switched from Verizon to T-Mobile this summer on my personal iphone. Still have Verizon for my work iPhone. Strange to see where one works and the other doesn’t in SW MT where I am. Wouldn’t say either is a clear winner. Was not impressed at all with satellite messaging with the iPhone this fall. Inreach is still the more reliable option. Looking forward to starlink with T-Mobile. Should be the clear winner but time will tell.

Yeah it’ll be interesting to see how it changes the telecommunications world really once it’s fully available.

 

[tdhanses]

They are not on the same systems. Garmin is on Iridium and Apple is on Globalstar.

My initial tryout for Apple sat comms was a fail. Until everyone in your circle has current phones and software it can't message everyone or in my case no one I wanted to message. It can send an SOS so there's that. Until everyone gets caught up I'm going to stick with the inReach which will message everyone I need to.

That is a bummer but I’m sure globalstar has improved its network over the years since I had a spot.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

It's gonna be longer than you think before Tmo uses starlink for sat comms...still has to be approved by FCC..VzW/Att have filed suit to stop the approval. BE lucky if it's available by Feb.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/att-and-verizon-outline-opposition-to-t-mobile-and-spacexs-satellite-service-amid-fears-of-interference/