T-Mobile and SpaceX are on the verge of achieving a major milestone – making the first-ever phone call from space. In a recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX requested “Special Temporary Authority” for a period of 60 days to launch and test their second-generation Gen2 satellites’ capability to connect regular cellphone calls.
The filing described the objective as enabling “direct-to-cellular communications payloads to connect unmodified cellular phones directly to SpaceX Gen2 satellites.” This development holds great promise for global connectivity, as it could potentially eliminate the problem of dead zones and provide reliable and uninterrupted connectivity in remote areas for the first time.
It is worth noting that T-Mobile and SpaceX had already announced a partnership for 5G connectivity in August. However, it remains unclear whether the upcoming phone calls scheduled for December will be utilizing 5G technology.
The news about SpaceX’s application for Special Temporary Authorization was first brought to light by a Reddit user, Megaconstellations. According to their post, the filing encountered objections from Omnispace, leading to the need for testing the device-to-device (D2D) service. This will involve coordination between SpaceX and T-Mobile, utilizing the mobile carrier’s 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz bands, also known as the PCS G Block.
The significance of this testing became apparent last month when AST SpaceMobile, which is supported by AT&T, successfully made a wireless call from a dead zone in Maui, Hawaii to a Vodafone engineer in Madrid, Spain, using a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone. This achievement was made possible through the collaboration of AT&T’s 5G spectrum, Nokia’s network core, and AST SpaceMobile’s low Earth orbit satellite, BlueWalker 3.
Neither T-Mobile nor SpaceX have issued any official comments on this matter at the moment. However, with such progress being made in space-based connectivity, the prospects for enhanced global communication and accessibility are looking brighter than ever.
