In response to the havoc brought by Hurricane Helene, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has temporarily approved SpaceX and T-Mobile’s direct-to-cell service. This is their chance to showcase Starlink satellites by starting with the areas affected by the hurricane. 

In response to the announcement, SpaceX said: 

“The satellites have already been enabled and started broadcasting emergency alerts to cell phones on all networks in North Carolina. In addition, we may test basic texting (SMS) capabilities for most cell phones on the T-Mobile network in North Carolina. 

SpaceX’s direct-to-cell constellation has not been fully deployed, so all services will be delivered on a best-effort basis.”

The areas that will be part of this test run are in North Carolina, which experienced blackout zones in the aftermath of the massive flooding. Although communications in the southeast region have slightly improved, some areas continue to experience outages. 

Hopefully, Starlink will be able to serve the wireless customers affected by these outages.

Source: The Verge