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as Fires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced on Thursday evening that they will turn on Starlink coverage for those who need it.
“Today T-Mobile and Starlink are opening T-Mobile Starlink Direct-to-Cellular service in affected areas of Southern California to deliver wireless emergency alerts and SMS and enable 911 texting,” the wireless carrier said. said. “While SpaceX’s direct-to-cell constellation has not yet been fully deployed, we are once again temporarily making this early test version available for those who need it.”
The carrier said its network is “holding strong” and that it has also “restored approximately half of the sites affected by the commercial power outage.”
“As safe conditions permit, our teams are evaluating affected sites in Altadena, Duarte, Calabasas, Malibu, Fillmore and Agoura Hills, and are continuing to deploy and refuel portables. generator sites until commercial power is restored.”
The Los Angeles fires are the latest deployment of a new satellite feature to keep its users connected during natural disasters. It previously enabled the service in response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene last year.
As was the case with the hurricanes, texting using satellite is limited to T-Mobile users with “supported phones.” Wireless emergency alerts and evacuation notices, however, can be sent via satellites to anyone in the affected areas regardless of their wireless carrier.
Again it’s worth remembering that this is an SMS, or traditional text messaging, and is done through the regular messages app on your phone. It doesn’t work with internet-based messaging services or apps like iMessage, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. T-Mobile told CNET that supported devices include “most” Android phones and iPhones older than the iPhone 14 series.
Apple users with an iPhone 14 (or later) running iOS 18 iMessages can also be sent, regardless of carrier, over satellite in areas where they don’t have coverage thank you Apple’s partnership with satellite company Globalstar. T-Mobile says users with iPhones will use Apple’s satellite services and not SpaceX’s Starlink.
While it uses the service in emergency situations, the Los Angeles deployment comes shortly after T-Mobile and SpaceX announced that they will start beta testing the service this year and registration is open.
Check it out: Apple vs. Google: Satellite Emergency Features Compare
