This is Elon Musk’s latest business: it’s being more troublesome than I thought

Maybe in a few years we will all talk on satellite phones, much more reliable for areas with poor coverage. Or maybe not. But, at least Elon Musk, have plans to do so.

SpaceX and T-Mobile recently partnered to develop a new ecosystem that allows conventional mobile phones to join a satellite communications network. And they are not the only ones. On September 7, Apple is expected to announce that its iPhones will connect to a fleet of satellites operated by GlobalStar. And a start-up called AST SpaceMobile plans to launch satellites next year that could give partners like Vodafone similar access.

But: Why connect mobile phones to satellite networks?

The biggest problem it solves is coverage in remote areas. Cell phone towers in densely populated places have made high-quality connectivity ubiquitous. However, when you go beyond them, satellites can make sense. Most dedicated satellite phones are quite large, expensive, and reserved for extreme situations: remote areas of poor countries, scientists in Antarctica or workers on oil platforms. There was a lot of talk in the presentation about people who live in remote villages or have hobbies that take them out into nature. The selling point is that you never have to worry about losing service.

But satellite phones may not be such a clear business

However, there are also things that complicate its installation. A typical mobile phone is designed to ‘connect’ to mobile phone towers within a radius of about 10 km. The satellites will be 500 km from a speaker and will be moving at more than 10,000 kilometers per hour. Clients of Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet network, connect via a base station. For that connection to work without enlarging the phone in your pocket, the satellites in question have to have antennas capable of detecting a very weak signal..

This is technically possible (Musk says they’ve already tested it), but it requires a large antenna. To give you an idea, the AST SpaceMobile satellites were initially so large that NASA was concerned they might increase the risk of orbital collisions.

The other challenge is finding some electromagnetic spectrum, a chunk of radio wave frequencies, that can be used to transmit back and forth. The key news from last night is that T-Mobile will share some of the frequencies it is licensed for with SpaceX to enable connection between their phones and the spacecraft.

Therefore, there are several obstacles in the way for the T-Mobile/SpaceX plan to work. Musk says the satellites that will be used, known as second-generation Starlink satellites, will be redesigned with new antennas that will use T-Mobile’s spectrum. But the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates satellites in the US, has not yet approved the first design for these spacecraft, and SpaceX has not updated its files to reflect any changes to them.

Also, these second-generation Starlink satellites are already quite large, to the point that SpaceX will have to launch them into space with its Starship, a rocket that has not yet entered orbit. The road from that first Starship flight into space to making it fly regularly enough to launch enough new satellites into orbit that can link up with T-Mobile will be a long one, and even if all goes according to plan, a rarity in the development of rockets.

Apple also joins the race

There is a feeling in the industry that this announcement was intended to preempt the apple news. While Apple doesn’t respond to questions about the project, leaks from within the company suggest it has been working on adding satellite links to iPhones for several years. At the same time, the satellite operator GlobalStar has revealed in financial documents that a “big global customer” is partnering with him on a new communications network, and this client has paid $300 million to buy 17 new satellites.

There aren’t many companies that can make that kind of investment, so all eyes are on Apple. Oh, and the company is promoting its September 7 event with space-themed advertising, a date that coincides with Apple’s new event.

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