SpaceX and T-Mobile recently announced its plan to launch a direct-to-phone connection with Starlink Gen 2 satellites. Thereafter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk immediately confirmed on Twitter that the said direct-to-phone connection will be available to Tesla vehicles, according to Electrek.
The partnership of the two companies commits T-Mobile to provide SpaceX a portion of its existing 5G spectrum known as the “mid-band PCS,” to enable the direct-to-phone connection with Starlink Gen 2 satellites. Only 2 to 4 megabits per cell area will be available over this connection, which is sufficient to make phone calls and send texts even to some of the world’s most remote locations. Additionally, one or two thousand phone calls per cell area can be supported at this speed, according to CEO Musk.
Currently existing cellphones can connect through the service considering that the satellites will utilize 5G spectrum, elevating excitement among several people especially Tesla owners. Dave Lee, a Twitter user, asked if Tesla vehicles will use their cellular connections to make emergency calls and texts which was answered “Yes” by CEO Musk.
T-Mobile intends to integrate this “Coverage Above and Beyond” with many of their current plans at no additional cost, therefore it would be a smart step to make this option available as standard with Tesla automobiles. However, it will take time for this feature to be available on Tesla vehicles as SpaceX’s Gen 2 Starlink satellites will be the first to have the additional antennas to support cellular connections.
