When T-Mobile announced its new satellite service, expectations quickly soared. The promise of being able to send messages even from areas without traditional coverage captured the attention of many users. It seemed like a perfect solution for those who venture into remote areas, and a useful tool in emergency situations.
T-Mobile officially launched its T-Satellite service a few days ago. It's an innovative feature that uses Starlink satellite technology to keep communication going when there's no terrestrial coverage. Until recently, the service only allowed users to send simple text messages.
Since the end of July, the carrier has taken another step and has also activated Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). This allows users to send photos, videos, and audio files via satellite.
The service debuted on July 23 after months of testing, and shortly after, this desired feature was added. The new feature was met with enthusiasm, especially by those who live in or frequently travel to places without cellular coverage. In addition, users don't need to make any complex adjustments: when entering an area without signal, the phone automatically connects to the satellite.
What's impressive is that users don't need to hold the phone up to the sky or look for a specific position. In fact, in tests conducted in Southern California, the satellite connection even worked inside a car.
T-Mobile admits the limitation
There's a major limitation that many didn't expect: the service currently only works with Motorola and Samsung phones. This leaves out a large part of the market, including iPhone users, who still can't take advantage of satellite messaging with multimedia files. Although support is expected to expand to other devices soon, for now it's not available to everyone.
In addition, although users can send photos, audio clips, and videos, the sending time can be long. In some cases, an image took up to two minutes (2 min) to send, and small videos (just 5 seconds (5 s) long) took more than 10 minutes (10 min). Even so, all files ended up arriving correctly, which is a positive point.
T-Mobile has shown that they're one step ahead when it comes to satellite connectivity. Their technology even surpasses similar services, such as iPhone's satellite system based on Globalstar. The company has already announced that in October they plan to introduce satellite data services, and in the future they'll offer voice calls using this network.
Although for now the T-Satellite feature doesn't aim to replace the conventional cellular network, it does stand out as a crucial alternative. Especially in places without coverage or in emergency situations. It's a great advantage for those who need to stay connected no matter what.