Sometimes, whether you're in a wild location or just somewhere with bad reception, you'll have difficulty with cell coverage. That could soon be less of an issue if you're an AT&T customer, however, as the company just announced a plan to provide its “first space broadband network directly to everyday cell phones.”
What does that mean in practice? According to AT&T, an agreement has been reached with AST SpaceMobile to use satellites orbiting the Earth to provide cellular service to AT&T mobile customers. That should mean you can get service anywhere on the planet, as you'll no longer need to rely on a nearby mast or cell tower to provide coverage for your device.
The deal runs until 2030, and while there's no information on pricing, we wouldn't expect it to be cheap. What we do know is that the first five satellites will launch from Cape Canaveral this summer, although it is unknown when AT&T customers will be able to start taking advantage of the new service.
Expanding coverage
This is not the first cellular service to offer coverage from space. In 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced that they were working together on a similar offering, which became known as Starlink Direct to Cell in October 2023. In January 2024, the program's first satellites were launched into space.
Meanwhile, Apple is offering Emergency SOS via satellite for free with certain devices starting in 2022. However, this feature only covers emergency calls, not regular communications.
With all of these services on offer, and AT&T's seemingly on the horizon, you should soon have plenty of options if you want to stay in touch with people in even the most remote of places. AT&T says its program will be available “in the not-too-distant future,” so we'll have to wait for more announcements, including, hopefully, pricing.
