T-Mobile US opened a registration page for a beta test in early 2025 of SpaceX’s direct-to-device (D2D) Starlink service, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conditionally approved in November.

The beta test will initially support texting with voice and data services to follow. Following the trial, T-Mobile stated on its website that it expects to launch a beta version of the service in 2025.

The long-awaited service will be available for free for the operator’s post-paid customers that have a compatible device, but T-Mobile warns the number of trial participants is limited.

The operator is prioritising first responders in the beta programme.

T-Mobile stated the satellite connectivity will cover “500,000 square miles of land in the United States not covered by Earth-bound cell towers” to end dead zones in rural or remote areas.

During the beta test, T-Mobile noted “performance may vary depending on several factors like location and number of people using the service simultaneously”.

SpaceX’s initial tests highlighted the birds could beam downlink rates at up to 17Mb/s, but Musk noted 5 December the fledgling D2D constellation is currently supporting bandwidth per stream of 10Mb/s, claiming that will increase as more satellites are launched.

T-Mobile and Starlink first announced the service in August 2022.

It was temporarily used in October to provide emergency SMS texting for hurricane victims in the southeast US. 

Using T-Mobile’s PCS G Block spectrum, SpaceX stated in March the service works on unmodified phone models from Samsung, Apple and Google.

T-Mobile took a shot at rivals, such as AT&T and Verizon, which are also planning D2D services, when it announced the beta trial.

“The experience is expected to be much more user-friendly than other satellite messaging services currently in market. For example, users will not need to hold their phone up to search for a signal. Both inbound and outbound messages are sent and received just like any other message.”

Starlink rival AST SpaceMobile launched its first five birds in September ahead of eventually using spectrum from AT&T and Verizon for their services.

During an investor conference in early December, Tim Farrar, president at TMF Associates, posted on X that a coverage map provided by AT&T indicated it will provide AST SpaceMobile’s connectivity across roughly 10 per cent of its US footprint.

A representative for AT&T told Mobile World Live the map did not equate to a percentage of coverage, but did not say what the actual percentage is.

Meanwhile through a partnership and investment in Globalstar, Apple recently expanded its space-based offering to allow users to send messages over satellite using its iMessage platform, after first enabling emergency messaging in 2022.