The hardest part of testing T-Mobile’s satellite company was finding a dead area.

I purposefully oriented my car toward zero while driving through the wooded roads of Washington State’s North Cascades. Specifically, I needed to get out of Seattle to find an area with no mobile cover so I could try out T-Mobile’s fresh Starlink-based satellite messaging services, T-Satellite, with my telephone. &nbsp,

I had anticipated that it would be more challenging. Most regions of the US are covered by some amount of cellular company. However, that also leaves a T-Mobile estimate of 500, 000 square kilometers of mobile dead zones. The ship, another wireless companies, and phone companies, including Măr, are betting that satellite communication will be the solution for those rural and isolated areas.

The mobile bars on my telefon suddenly abandoned me at Lake Diablo, about two and a half hours north of Seattle, giving me a chance to jump messages back and forth from space to check whether T-Mobile has made satellite texting as easy as regular biological texting.

How T-Satellite varies from various satellite companies

On one hand, driving 120 miles only to text people seems like excess. However, when cellular coverage disappears, texting or any other direct inside conversation comes to an end.

Satellite messaging is not fresh. Apple started offering SOS contact backed by Globalstar on the phone 14. And eventually, that made it possible to text emergency messages when you’re outside of coverage areas, saving lives in remote areas for those who are hurt, lost, or stranded. Additionally, the function made it possible to communicate your location in the Find My app via satellite. Apple next expanded the company to include any messaging using the Information item, as well as calling for roadside assistance. When he climbed Mount Haleakal’s peak in Hawaii, CNET’s David Lumb used Messages via satellite on his iPhone 15 Pro to text friends and share his thoughts.

The Pixel 9A, which works with Google’s Pixel 9 phones and works with Skylo, has a feature that is comparable to that on its Pixel 9 phones. Samsung Galaxy phones, like the recently released Galaxy Z Fold 7 şi Z Flip 7, can use Verizon for satellite texting and to contact emergency services through Skylo, too.

To activate the feature, however, there are a few steps involved in that communication. You must be outside, clear of any trees or structures, and you must point your phone at a passing satellite while keeping the connection steady.

With T-Satellite, the experience is quite different. Texting is almost indistinguishable from texting when you are covered by cellular data. Opening the Messages app on a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with a T-Mobile plan displayed the phone as already connected to satellite, with a banner stating “You’re messaging by satellite.” A small satellite icon appears in the menu bar with radiating curves to indicate the status of the connection.

This is due in part to the fact that there are now more than 650 Starlink satellites overhead providing wider coverage, but also because they use a frequency band compatible with most phones sold in the last four years. You don’t need a particular phone model with satellite messaging software, like the Motorola Razr Ultra.

On my iPhone 16 Pro, T-Satellite was typically set up the same. One unique thing about T-Satellite is that T-Mobile is offering the service to anyone, even if they use another carrier for cellular service. In my situation, I used the second eSIM slot on my phone to test the T-Satellite beta and disabled the main service ( AT&amp, T ) to test only T-Mobile’s feature. In the menu bar, a solid, black satellite icon appears.

I should note that I performed this testing a couple days before T-Satellite went live, so it was technically during the T-Satellite beta period, and using a beta version of the Messages app on Android.

Plus, I didn’t attempt to make an emergency call either, which would require dialing 911 in the phone app on the T-Satellite service as opposed to initiating an SOS text message using Apple’s service.

Texting, but occasionally slower

Mostly, texting via satellite is just like texting via cellular. At 17, 000 miles per hour, the data pipe between the phone and a satellite flying overhead is thin, so texts might take a few seconds to get through. However, there will occasionally be no longer any lingering lag. By comparison, when CNET’s Patrick Holland tested Apple’s Messages via satellite feature, he noted that “most sends were nearly instantaneous, others took 15 to 20 seconds with one taking over a minute”.

One feature that is currently available for Android is the ability to send images, videos, and audio files over the satellite network using the Multimedia Messaging Service. I took a picture of the lake using Messages on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and I sent it it using Messages as I would normally. The only difference over satellite is that it took around two and a half minutes to send.

However, iOS support will only be available for now and only for Android. Additionally, the ability for apps to send and receive data over the satellite connection is coming in the future, specifically in October. T-Mobile has cited AllTrails as an example of apps that’ll be compatible with the service.

This would make a fantastic use of data for other mapping software. I made a point of using Apple Maps to download an offline map of the area while I was still in cellular range, even though I was never lost on this trip– I pulled into a well-marked scenic overlook to test with a stunning view. &nbsp,

Lingering difficulties and questions

There are some areas where more clarity would be helpful, and not all of my inquiries were received.

For example, on Android, it wasn’t always obvious when I’d lost satellite connection. You shouldn’t have to worry about pointing at a particular area of the sky in theory because there are many Starlink satellites overhead, keeping a connection. However, some text below it said the app was waiting to connect at one point after sending a message. Only then did I notice the tiny satellite icon was showing thin gray bars instead of thin black bars.

Compare that to Apple’s implementation, which uses Dynamic Island to display an impossible-to-miss green status button to indicate a reliable satellite connection. Google’s Satellite SOS service, with its full-screen visual prompts that keep you connected to a satellite or connect to a new one if necessary, is also available.

I also ran into some confusion with my iPhone 16 Pro running T-Satellite as a secondary eSIM. When I attempted to text a friend who was using Apple’s method on his iPhone and was connected via satellite, I received a message that indicated that he was selected to select Send via Satellite. What I wasn’t aware of at the time was that the connection ceased as I began to type the text. On further research, I discovered that an active third-party satellite connection shows” SAT” in the menu bar. I assumed that I was still connected when a black satellite icon next to the SAT icon indicated that Apple’s satellite option is available but that it is no longer available.

Look up and ahead.

Will satellite services cover the remaining dead zones and allow easy communication even in remote areas? The potential is unquestionably there, based on my experience. It’s been less than two years since Apple first introduced Emergency SOS via satellite on the iPhone, and it’s impressive how satellite connectivity has grown so quickly and now includes texting support. I appreciate that the T-Satellite implementation is similar to the way millions of people communicate every day via text. The key to adopting technologies like this is to eliminate friction.

It’s obvious that in the near future you won’t have to consider how you’re getting data as much as we don’t ever consider which cellular tower is relaying our data as companies increase their capacity and performance of satellite services.

As someone who lives in cellular-saturated Seattle, I probably won’t need to rely on satellite data. However, I’ve been camping in the North Cascades for years, so I can see why it occasionally helps, especially if there’s ever an emergency.

A couple approached me to ask what I was doing as I was juggling my phones and texting my friends and family. They were visiting the area from a small town in northern Idaho near the Canadian border, where cellular coverage is a rarity. Being able to connect wirelessly via satellite could be really helpful for them, especially in emergencies, after talking for a few minutes. This was recently demonstrated by T-Mobile’s decision to grant satellite access to areas in central Texas that were the subject of extensive flooding, but it’s also useful when other forms of communication are unavailable, such as during power outages.