Two big announcements regarding new satellite-based communications options for cell phones dropped in the past month, giving us a view of the next big frontier in wireless communications. First, Elon Musk’s Starlink (a division of SpaceX) and T-Mobile U.S. agreed to interconnect their networks, allowing T-Mobile cellular devices to roam onto Starlink’s next-generation low-earth orbit satellites (LEOS). That announcement became a footnote a week later when Apple announced a partnership with LEOS provider Globalstar to provide an emergency alert capability called Emergency SOS By Satellite on its new iPhone 14 models, to be available in the U.S. and Canada in November.
