With the way technology is advancing in the US, dead zones will soon be a thing of the past– at least for T-Mobile. 

Earlier today, T-Mobile announced that it had successfully sent and received a wireless emergency alert (WEA) via Starlink satellites equipped with satellite-to-smartphone capabilities. This is an important achievement since this is the first time in US history that a wireless emergency alert was sent via satellite. 

A test alert for a hypothetical evacuation notice was sent at 5:13 pm on Thursday, September 5. This was sent 217 miles into space where one of over 175 orbitting Starlink direct-to-smartphone satellites received the signal. It then broadcasted the alert to a geographic area intended for the hypothetical evacuation notice. A T-Mobile smartphone received the alert. The emergency response took just a few seconds to be queued and delivered via Starlink’s low-earth orbit satellites. 

With this technology, everyone in the US will soon be able to receive an emergency alert even in the midst of a hurricane, tornado, or fire. The best part about this is that it won’t be limited to T-Mobile customers– anyone will be able to receive the emergency alert regardless of provider. 

Source: T-Mobile