Telstra is working on Starlink direct-to-cell service

The Australian incumbent announced its latest partnership with the satellite firm on Thursday, explaining that the pair would initially concentrate on testing and refining the service, ahead of a commercial launch.

It gave no indication as to when that commercial launch might come. Much surely depends on what Starlink has learned from its collaboration with T-Mobile US and how much of that learning can be applied to the Australian landmass. Given that the two operators share the same goal, to cover hard-to-reach areas, it's safe to assume that there are a fair number of parallels.

T-Mobile US announced its direct-to-cell partnership with Starlink as long ago as August 2022. The technology development, testing and regulatory process has been fairly slow, but the pair got the go-ahead from the FCC for a text messaging service in November and T-Mobile opened up the registration process for would-be customers to its beta test service before Christmas. It's not quite the year-end service launch it was initially shooting for, but we are getting close to a live service.

All of that must be of assistance to Telstra as it plans a service of its own. The Australian operator is arguably more realistic about the potential of the technology than its hyperbolic stateside peer though.

T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert and SpaceX founder Elon Musk were trumpeting a complete end to mobile coverage dead zones two and a half years ago, glossing over the fact that the service would be restricted to messaging for what turned out to be quite a time; adding voice and data requires yet more regulatory change on power level restrictions. Telstra though – and admittedly with the benefit of hindsight – is keen to point out that this is a complementary technology that will help users in times of need, and not an immediate answer to ubiquitous, high-speed coverage.

"This is currently really a 'just-in-case' connectivity layer that allows a person to make contact for help or let someone know they are ok when they are outside their own carrier's mobile coverage footprint," Telstra said, in a statement.

"This technology will continue to mature and will initially support sending and receiving text messages, and in the longer term, voice and low speed data to smartphones across Australia when outdoors with a clear line of site to the sky," it explained, in its very measured announcement.

"Just as mobile networks didn't replace fibre networks, it's important to realise the considerable difference between the carrying capacity of satellite versus mobile technology," Telstra said.

Australia's landmass makes it the ideal candidate for direct-to-cell and indeed, Tesltra is not the first to buddy up with Starlink to bring it to market. Optus announced a partnership with the LEO satellite specialist in July 2023 and, like T-Mobile US, said it was aiming to bring a text messaging service to market by the end of 2024, followed by voice and data this year.

Clearly, it did not hit that first target, but with progress being made in the US, we can probably expect an announcement of some sort from Optus in the fairly near future.

Telstra may be playing it cool in public, with its highly grounded announcement, but things could be very different behind the scenes. The race to market is on in Australia.