Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- T-Mobile and Starlink’s satellite messaging service won’t be available to everyone registering for the beta program.
- Initially, the service will be supported on select smartphones with T-Mobile postpaid plans.
- The carrier will share a list of supported devices once the beta goes live early next year.
T-Mobile and Starlink are getting ready to test their satellite messaging platform. The carrier is currently accepting registrations for the beta run of the service, and while anyone can register, not everyone will ultimately get to test it.
In its FAQ section about the satellite messaging beta, T-Mobile notes that not all smartphones will be supported at the get-go. “During the beta, to ensure a great customer experience, we are optimizing the experience on select smartphones,” T-Mobile writes.
The carrier hasn’t provided any details on which smartphones will support the beta version of its satellite messaging service but has promised to share those details when the beta goes live in early 2025.
Eventually, T-Mobile plans to expand the beta to more devices and has also said that when the commercial satellite messaging service, it should work on most modern smartphones. We already know that satellite messaging is something most Android 15 phones should support. But that’s not it.
There’s another caveat for getting into T-Mobile’s satellite messaging beta program. The carrier says it will initially start testing the service with a small number of postpaid plan customers only. Of course, these customers will also need to have “optimized phones,” to ensure they can try out satellite texting. Entry into the beta program is also on a first come, first served basis for postpaid users with supported device.
Fortunately, if you do end up being one of the lucky few who get to try satellite messaging on T-Mobile, you won’t have to pay a dime to use it. The company says that T-Mobile Starlink will be free during the beta test. More details about the price of the commercial service will be divulged at launch, which T-Mobile expects to go through with sometime next year once the public beta testing concludes.
