SpaceX says it’s going to check Starlink’s satellite-to-cell service with T-Mobile this yr

WASHINGTON — SpaceX plans to start testing its Starlink satellite-to-cell service with T-Mobile this yr, an government of Elon Musk’s firm stated on Monday.

“We’re going to learn a lot by doing — not necessarily by overanalyzing — and getting out there,” Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX vice chairman of Starlink enterprise gross sales, stated on a panel on the Satellite 2023 convention in Washington, D.C.

The marketplace for space-based information companies on to gadgets on the bottom, corresponding to for smartphones, is broadly thought-about to have profitable potential, with a wide range of satellite tv for pc firms partnering with terrestrial cellular community operators (MNOs) and machine makers to fill in protection gaps throughout the Earth.

SpaceX and T-Mobile introduced their partnership in August, vowing to “end mobile dead zones.”

SpaceX has launched about 4,000 Starlink satellites thus far, and lately rolled out its extra highly effective “V2 Mini” satellites, which it says have quadruple the capability of the earlier technology.

Hofeller stated Monday that SpaceX is manufacturing six satellites per day at its facility close to Seattle and believes the corporate is now not manufacturing its earlier 1.5 sequence of Starlink satellites. The firm can also be producing “thousands” of consumer terminals per day, he stated.

While SpaceX plans to make even bigger second-generation satellites, and has “made a few” to this point, Hofeller emphasised that launching these is “tied very closely to Starship,” the corporate’s towering rocket that has but to achieve house.

SpaceX has “well over” 1 million Starlink customers, Hofeller stated, having handed that milestone in December. The compay lately introduced that its Starlink enterprise “had a cash flow positive quarter” in 2022, with the corporate aiming for the unit to “make money” in 2023.