Elon Musk Just Announced A Cool Starlink Feature (And It's Free For Everyone)

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As you may already know, SpaceX is developing a new service called Starlink Direct-to-cell that will allow smartphones to connect directly to its satellites, in dead zones. The new Direct-to-cell satellites provide a 4G network from space and are compatible with all smartphones that support 4G. And SpaceX plans to offer texting through the service this year, before offering calls and mobile data starting in 2025.

Elon Musk announces free service for emergencies

At the moment, it is not known when Direct-to-cell will be commercialized. But in the meantime, Elon Musk has already announced that this Starlink offer will include a free service for everyone. In short, it will be possible to use Starlink satellites for free, from your smartphone, to contact emergency services, when you are in a dead zone. No subscription will be required.

“[…] SpaceX Starlink will provide free access to emergency services for mobile phones to people in distress. This applies worldwide, subject to approval by the governments of the countries. We cannot imagine a situation in which someone dies because he forgot it or because he could not pay”, Elon Musk said. It’s unclear how this will work at the moment. But it seems that Starlink wants to offer a service similar to Apple’s Emergency SOS, which is only available on compatible iPhones, and only in a few countries (and soon, it will also be possible to exchange text messages).

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A strong argument to convince the American regulator

As a reminder, unlike Starlink’s current offerings, Direct-to-cell will be deployed in partnership with operators. In the United States, Starlink has partnered with T-Mobile. And while competing operators are opposed to the deployment of this Direct-to-cell offer, one of Starlink’s arguments for the American regulator, the FCC, is that its offer will benefit everyone, even subscribers of other American operators. Otherwise, the document recently sent by SpaceX to the FCC also reveals that in the last eight months, the company has launched 130 satellites capable of providing a 4G network from space.

For information, Starlink collaborates with other operators, in other countries: Optus in Australia, Rogers in Canada, One NZ in New Zealand, KDDI in Japan, SALT in Switzerland, and Entel in Chile and Peru. But according to Elon Musk's announcement, it will be possible to use Starlink to contact emergency services, even when you are not a customer of one of these operators.

• Starlink is developing Direct-to-cell, a new satellite connection that will allow 4G in dead zones
• In a publication on X, Elon Musk announced that Direct-to-cell will allow you to contact emergency services for free, even when you are not a user of this offer
• Starlink works with operators (like T-Mobile in the United States), but it will not be necessary to be a customer of these partner operators to benefit from the free service

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