Coverage Above and Beyond

T-Mobile and SpaceX partnered for “Coverage Above and Beyond” cellular. Looks like starting next year. Anybody know anything more about it and how it “might” work with particle gen3 devices if at all?

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Eventually, it could be interesting. However, because it requires the new generation of Starlink satellites, beta testing won’t even begin until late 2023. And even then, only SMS/MMS will initially be supported.

Also, even though a number of Particle devices currently support T-Mobile as a carrier, they do so by roaming. There’s no indication whether roaming users would be able to use this service, but likely not.

And, in any case, there is no support for SMS on Particle SIMs. Among other things, there is no phone number assigned to the device so there would be no way to send SMS to a device with a Particle SIM.

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I found this article with more information which coincides with what @rickkas7 has already stated :grimacing:

“Initially, at least, the service would not provide broadband Internet service. But in a typical cell of service, it should provide up to 2 to 4 megabits of data, enough for thousands of voice calls or millions of text messages. This would allow connectivity in areas off the grid, or during emergency situations such as when a hurricane knocks out service to a community.

A user’s cell phone would look for service first from a cell phone tower, but when it did not detect this, instead of providing a user with no bars of service, the phone would search the sky. It would then draw connectivity from the nearest available satellite, with software on the satellite communicating to the mobile phone as if it were a virtual cell tower on the ground.”

Full article here for those who wish to read more
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/forget-5g-wireless-spacex-and-t-mobile-want-to-offer-zero-g-coverage/?amp=1

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