Tmobile & SpaceX join forces to end Dead Zones.

During a live announcement set at SpaceX’s Starbase near Brownsville, TX, where Starships are being built and tested, Elon Musk sat alongside T-Mobile’s CEO Mike Sievert. Leading with a remix of Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic and fireworks, the small crowd of T-mobilers and SpaceXers gathered to hear of the new partnership to end dead zones.

Tmobile ($TMUS) and SpaceX announced a partnership to end dead zones billed ‘Coverage Above and Beyond’. Working with Starlink V2, Tmobile will use existing phone architecture to provide MMS, or text messaging thru Starlink satellites. This will allow T-mobile cellphone users in remote locations the ability to send a message within a 30 minute window. The United States, because of its giant landmass, is missing about 20% cellphone tower coverage, this works as an un-heard of stop gap.

“Leveraging Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, and T-Mobile’s industry-leading wireless network, the Un-carrier plans to provide near complete coverage in most places in the U.S. – even in many of the most remote locations previously unreachable by traditional cell signals.” (from T-mobile press release)

“The important thing about this is that it means there are no dead zones anywhere in the world for your cell phone,” said SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk. “We’re incredibly excited to do this with T-Mobile.”

With this technology, T-Mobile is planning to give customers text coverage practically everywhere in the continental US, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters, with a beta in select areas by the end of next year. Text messaging, including SMS, MMS and participating messaging apps, will allow customers to stay connected and share experiences nearly everywhere. The longer term plan is to pursue the addition of voice and data coverage.

The CEOs shared their vision for expanding Coverage Above and Beyond globally, issuing an open invitation to the world’s carriers to collaborate for truly global connectivity. T-Mobile also committed to offer reciprocal roaming to those providers working with them to enable this vision.

Near the end of the event, Elon said, “We’d love to have T-Mobile on Mars,” after an irreverent audience question about expanding through the solar system.