Telekom test: Standard Pixel 9 sends and receives text messages via satellite
At Deutsche Telekom, non-converted satellites will soon be able to send and receive text messages via geostationary satellites. A test has worked in Greece.
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For the first time in Europe, Deutsche Telekom has received and sent text messages via a geostationary satellite using a standard smartphone. The provider has now made this public in the course of the MWC and speaks of an “important step for the development of future communication services via satellite”. Previously, this was only possible with special devices. Telekom promises that commercial messaging services will be offered via satellite for commercially available devices in Germany and throughout Europe from the end of the year. These are not needed out of convenience, they are necessary to ensure “that our customers can communicate seamlessly at all times”.
Europe's geography as an obstacle
As Telekom explains, a Pixel 9 from Google was used in the test carried out in Greece. This established a direct connection to a geostationary satellite on which the provider Skylo had booked spectrum. The distance to geostationary satellites is significantly greater than to satellites in low earth orbit, such as those used for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet or AST SpaceMobile's communication services. Deutsche Telekom's test was implemented based on the 3GPP Release 17 specifications for direct-to-handset (D2H) connectivity, the company writes.
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A few days ago, the Group already explained that Germany's largest provider does not want to rely on Starlink when it comes to mobile coverage in unserved areas. This is despite the fact that the US subsidiary T-Mobile has only just started a beta test with the same technology. This is also due to conditions in Europe, which differ greatly from those in the USA. In comparatively small Europe, this is made more difficult by the fact that network operators use different frequencies in neighboring countries due to country-specific radio regulations. For Starlink, this means that a 50-kilometer-wide border strip remains unserved, which makes the service much less attractive for providers here.
In Europe, Deutsche Telekom has to fend off the British provider Vodafone instead. Together with AST SpaceMobile, Vodafone wants to occupy the market for mobile satellite communications. To this end, both want to establish a satellite provider and offer its services to European mobile network operators (MNOs). The Texan satellite operator has launched the giant BlueBird satellites into space, which can provide smartphones with a 4G or 5G connection and are said to deliver peak data rates of 120 Mbps. That would be significantly more than what Starlink has achieved so far.
(mho)
