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Communications

FCC Approves T-Mobile, SpaceX License To Extend Coverage To Dead Zones 38

The FCC said it has approved a license for T-Mobile and SpaceX's Starlink to provide supplemental coverage to cover internet dead zones. Reuters reports: The license marks the first time the FCC has authorized a satellite operator collaborating with a wireless carrier to provide supplemental telecommunications coverage from space on some flexible-use spectrum bands allocated to terrestrial service. The partnership aims to extend the reach of wireless networks to remote areas and eliminate "dead zones."

T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a partnership in 2022 and in January the first set of satellites supporting the partnership was launched into low-Earth orbit with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. "The FCC is actively promoting competition in the space economy by supporting more partnerships between terrestrial mobile carriers and satellite operators to deliver on a single network future that will put an end to mobile dead zones," said FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

FCC Approves T-Mobile, SpaceX License To Extend Coverage To Dead Zones

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  • Dead zone (Score:2, Insightful)

    From Cities of Salt, Abdelrahman Munif trans. Peter Theroux, upon an oil crew's demonstration of the telephone to a sheik, the sheik remarks "Can this marvelous instrument be used to speak with all manner of absent persons, even the dead?" Approximate quote from memory.
  • FCC Approves T-Mobile, SpaceX License To Extend Coverage To Dead Zones

    ... Stephen King and Christopher Walken will be thrilled. :-)

  • by cusco ( 717999 ) <<brian.bixby> <at> <gmail.com>> on Wednesday November 27, 2024 @10:47AM (#64975751)

    If you all don't mind, I'd like to interject an observation that doesn't have to do with partisan politics.

    We traveled down the Pacific Coast Highway a couple of years ago, and drove from Seattle to Louisiana the year before that and Seattle to Michigan the year after. Any cellular company claiming "95% coverage across the United States" is full of crap. There are dead zones 50 miles from Portland along a major highway, there were places throughout our travels when we were without even one bar for an hour or more. Hell, there's a big dead zone 15 minutes from the Microsoft campus, half an hour from T-Mobile's headquarters, that tens of thousands of commuters drive through ever day.

    • They claim they cover 95% of the population's homes or workplaces, not 95% of the country's geographical area. They focus on the densest areas. Getting from 95% to 98% requires a huge increase in coverage area which no-one wants to do.

      • by kwerle ( 39371 )

        Except, it seems, TMobile and SpaceX?

        • by cusco ( 717999 )

          Interestingly we can see the T-Mobile headquarters from our window, but only get 3 bars here in spite of the antennas that we can see on the building.

          • Interestingly we can see the T-Mobile headquarters from our window, but only get 3 bars here in spite of the antennas that we can see on the building.

            Does your window have a screen on it? Maybe your house is a Faraday Cage.

    • So my question about this is will the satellite only work in vast areas with no cell towers, or provide backup coverage in "covered" areas where you get no coverage because you're on the back side of a hill etc
      • My understanding it will cover everywhere, but your phone will see a substantially weaker signal from the sats and will prefer to connect to the terrestrial network assuming signal is received from it. So this should work in areas that have coverage in theory, but because of something like the shadow of a hill/mountain you get no signal.
        • I would love that. Just the ability to text anywhere would free me from carrying a separate satellite device. And I'm on T-Mobile. Come on guys, I've been hearing about this for years. And please don't make me buy a new $1200 phone to get it.

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