On Thursday, Elon Musk took the stage alongside T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert to announce that
The companies claim that satellites of the newgenerations of Starlink, scheduled to launch next year, will be able to communicate directly with phones, allowing you to text, make calls and possibly stream video even where there are no cell towers nearby. What's more, Musk promised that all of this is possible with the phones people use today, without having to buy additional hardware.
SpaceX and T-Mobile aren't the only companies that want to use satellites to communicate directly with cell phones.AST SpaceMobile has been planning to transmit broadband signals to phones from space for several years, and Lynk Global has already demonstrated that its satellite cell towers can be used to send text messages from feature phones.It's easy to imagine that these companies would be frightened that the two giants would suddenly want toto take part in such a game – but, as it turned out, this is not the case at all.They seem to be delighted.
"We love the validation and attention that this technology is attracting," the CEO saidLynk Charles Miller in an interview with The Verge."Today we're getting all sorts of calls fromtelecom operators who say, 'Help us!'"
Miller emphasized the importance of technology induring emergencies and natural disasters, when events such as hurricanes, wildfires, floods or earthquakes can disrupt traditional cellular networks.
Miller's position is very similar to Sievert's andMusk, but he doesn't seem particularly concerned about competing in the same space as them. Part of his confidence comes from Lynk's leadership position in the market.
Scott Wisniewski, executive vice president and chief strategist at AST, echoed a similar sentiment."Our CEO tweeted that we're glad they're focusing on this big market and this big need.And it was nice to hear people say that the technology existsfor them," he said.