How fires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced Thursday night that they will be turning on Starlink coverage for those who need it.
“Today T-Mobile and Starlink launched T-Mobile Starlink Direct-to-Cellular service through the affected areas of Southern California to deliver wireless emergency alerts and SMS and enable texting to 911,” the wireless carrier said. “While SpaceX's direct-to-cell constellation is not fully deployed, we are once again temporarily making this early test version available to those who need it most.”
The carrier says its network “remained strong” and that it has also “restored approximately half of the locations affected by the commercial power loss.”
“As conditions safely permit, our teams are assessing affected locations in Altadena, Duarte, Calabasas, Malibu, Fillmore and Agoura Hills and are continuing to deploy and refuel with portable generators at the locations until commercial power is restored.”
The Los Angeles fires are the latest deployment of the new satellite feature to keep its users connected during a natural disaster. Previously enabled the service in response to Hurricanes Milton and Helen last year.
As was the case with the hurricanes, satellite messaging will be limited to T-Mobile customers 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.
Once again it's worth noting that this is SMS or traditional text messaging and is done through your phone's regular messaging app. It won't work with web-based messaging services or apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger. T-Mobile tells 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 can also send iMessages, regardless of carrier, via satellite in areas that do not have coverage thanks to Apple's partnership with satellite company Globalstar. T-Mobile says customers with those iPhones will use Apple's satellite services, not SpaceX's Starlink.
Although it has used the service in emergency situations, the Los Angeles deployment comes shortly after T-Mobile and SpaceX announced that they will begin beta testing the service this year and open registration.
Watch this: Apple vs. Google: Satellite emergency features compared