T-Mobile uses Starlink emergency alert to push its satellite credentials

The US mobile operator has been talking up its relationship with Starlink for some time and is working on the launch of a direct satellite-to-smartphone service later this year. But this latest announcement is very much all about T-Mobile – Starlink gets a cursory mention – and it clearly shows that the telco is positioning itself as America's go-to provider for satellite services.

"Emergency alerts will work for everyone – even Verizon, AT&T and other wireless provider customers will receive critical emergency alerts," T-Mobile states at the start of an announcement in which it shares that "T-Mobile Starlink satellite-to-smartphone technology [will] bring critical emergency alerts to 500,000+ square miles of land currently unreachable with earth-based cell towers."

It goes without saying that that's a positive thing for US residents. But the tone of the announcement, including that reference to "T-Mobile Starlink...technology," is more interesting than its content. You could be forgiven for thinking that T-Mobile essentially invented low-earth orbit (LEO) direct-to-smartphone communications.

It's certainly not worried about namechecking its main rivals, both of whom are quite heavily involved in the evolving LEO market too. AT&T and, more recently, Verizon have partnered with AST SpaceMobile with a view to extending their coverage areas through direct-to-smartphone technology.

They are some way behind T-Mobile US though. AST SpaceMobile launched its first five direct-to-smartphone satellites earlier on Thursday, while Starlink – owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX and not T-Mobile, lest we forget – has more than 175 already in orbit. It launched its first half dozen cell towers in space, as it prefers to call them, at the start of this year.

T-Mobile's posturing is part of the bigger picture for the joint LEO/mobile industry though. For today, at least, it's all about that emergency alert test.

It took place on Thursday last week when T-Mobile US sent a test alert of a hypothetical evacuation notice 217 miles into space, from where one of Starlink's direct-to-smartphone satellites enabled it be broadcast to the geographical area affected by the fake emergency. A T-Mobile US smartphone picked up the alert.

The test was the first of its kind in the US, T-Mobile said.

It noted that it took emergency operators just a matter of seconds to queue up an emergency message and deliver it, via Starlink, to users on the ground. And that could be pretty important in a country like the US, where there are vast spaces with sparse populations and a lack of decent mobile coverage.

Indeed, the telco used the example of a major California wild fire in 2018, which left people living or working without cellular coverage – not an uncommon scenario – without any means of receiving an emergency alert, and also took out 17 mobile towers on day one and 66 in total, cutting off those who normally did have mobile access.

"This is one of those days, as the CEO of a wireless company, that makes me pause for a moment and reflect on how technology advancements and the work we're doing is truly impacting life and death situations," said T-Mobile US chief executive Mike Sievert.

He did not, however, pass comment on when T-Mobile will actually launch satellite-to-smartphone services. SpaceX is due to launch more satellites in the coming months and then the operator will be able to begin beta testing, it said, without elaborating further. That year-end timeframe for launch could be in doubt.