Driving the wooded highways of the North Cascades in Washington state, I deliberately pointed my car toward nothing. Specifically, I needed to get out of Seattle to find an area with no cellular coverage so I could try out T-Mobile’s new Starlink-based satellite texting service, T-Satellite, with my phone. 

It was more difficult than I expected. Most areas of the US are covered by some level of cellular service. But that still leaves around 500,000 square miles of wireless dead zones, according to a T-Mobile estimate. For those rural and remote areas, the carrier, other wireless providers and phone-makers including Apple, are betting satellite connectivity is the answer.

The wireless bars on my phone finally abandoned me at Lake Diablo, about two and a half hours northeast of Seattle, giving me a chance to bounce messages back and forth from space to test whether T-Mobile has made satellite texting as easy as everyday cellular texting.

How T-Satellite differs from other satellite services

On one hand, driving 120 miles just to text someone seems like overkill. But texting — or any immediate outside communication — slams to a halt when cellular coverage disappears.

Satellite texting isn’t new. Apple started offering SOS communication backed by Globalstar on the iPhone 14. And later, that allowed emergency texting when you’re outside coverage areas — a literal lifesaver for people injured, lost or stranded in remote areas. The feature also allowed you to share you location via satellite in the Find My app. Apple then expanded the service to include any texting using the Messages app, as well as calling for roadside assistance. CNET’s David Lumb used Messages via satellite on his iPhone 15 Pro to text friends and share his thoughts when he summited Mount Haleakalā’s peak in Hawaii.

Google has a similar feature in its Pixel 9 phones, except the Pixel 9A, which works with satellite provider Skylo. Samsung Galaxy phones, like the recently released Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, can use Verizon for satellite texting and to contact emergency services through Skylo, too.

However, that communication involves a few steps to activate the feature. You need to be outdoors with a clear view of the sky — no trees or buildings — and point your phone at a passing satellite, keeping it steady to maintain the connection.

With T-Satellite, the experience is quite different. Texting is almost indistinguishable from when you’re within cellular coverage. On a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with a T-Mobile plan, opening the Messages app showed the phone already connected to satellite, with a banner reading “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 specific phone model that has satellite messaging hardware, such as the Motorola Razr Ultra.

The experience of setting up T-Satellite on my iPhone 16 Pro was generally 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 case, I set up the T-Satellite beta using the second eSIM slot on my phone, and turned off the primary service (AT&T) in order to test just T-Mobile’s feature. A solid black satellite icon appears in the menu bar.

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 on the T-Satellite service would mean dialing 911 in the phone app, versus initiating an SOS text communication using Apple’s service.

Texting, but sometimes slower

Mostly, texting via satellite is just like texting via cellular. The data pipe between the phone and a satellite flying overhead at 17,000 miles per hour is small, so occasionally texts would take several seconds to go through. But sometimes a conversation would happen without any extended 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 going live today for Android is the ability to send images, videos and audio files using Multimedia Messaging Service over the satellite network. On the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I snapped a photo of the lake and sent it using Messages as I normally would. The only difference over satellite is that it took around two and a half minutes to send.

However, MMS is currently only supported on Android; iOS support is coming later. Also arriving in the future — October, specifically — is the ability for apps to send and receive data over the satellite connection. T-Mobile has cited AllTrails as an example of apps that’ll be compatible with the service.

This would be a great use of data for other mapping tools. Although I was never lost on this trip –I pulled into a well-marked scenic overlook to test with a stunning view — I also made a point of downloading an offline map of the area using Apple Maps while I was still within cellular range. 

Lingering questions and challenges

Not every message went through, and after my limited testing, there are a few areas where more clarity would help.

For example, on Android, it wasn’t always obvious when I’d lost satellite connection. In theory, with many Starlink satellites overhead, you shouldn’t have to worry about pointing at a specific patch of sky to maintain a connection. But at one point after sending a message, some text below it said the app was waiting to connect. 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 show an impossible-to-miss green status button to indicate a solid connection to a satellite. Or Google’s Satellite SOS service, with its full-screen visual prompts that help you stay connected to a satellite or connect to a new one if needed.

I also ran into some confusion with my iPhone 16 Pro running T-Satellite as a secondary eSIM. When attempting to text a friend who came along with me and was using Apple’s method on his iPhone, I got a message that he was connected via satellite and was given the option to tap Send via Satellite. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the connection dropped as I was typing the text. On further research, I discovered that an active third-party satellite connection shows “SAT” in the menu bar. When SAT is replaced by a black satellite icon, it means T-Satellite is no longer connected, but that Apple’s satellite option is available; I thought it meant that I was still connected.

Look up, and ahead

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

As companies build up the capacity and performance of satellite services, it’s easy to see a near future where you don’t have to think about how you’re getting data, just as we currently don’t ever think about which cellular tower is relaying our data.

As someone who lives in cellular-saturated Seattle, I probably won’t need to rely on satellite data. But the North Cascades is where I’ve gone camping for years, so I can see it being occasionally useful, especially if there’s ever an emergency situation.

As I was juggling my phones and pestering my friends and family with texts, a couple approached to ask what I was doing. They were visiting the area from a small town in northern Idaho near the Canadian border, where cellular coverage is a rarity. After talking for a few minutes, I realized that being able to connect wirelessly via satellite could be a real boon for them, especially in emergencies. We’ve seen this recently when T-Mobile opened T-Satellite access in communities affected by massive flooding in central Texas — but it’s also useful when other forms of communication aren’t available, like during power outages.