T-Mobile’s satellite-to-phone service is expanding its coverage. The carrier is adding mobile app data support for 17 new phones on its Cellular Starlink network, the program it also sells under the name T-Satellite, after a period of early access and staged rollouts. The expansion takes satellite connectivity further than just emergency messaging and into everyday apps, for more users—especially those who spend time off-grid or in patchy coverage areas.
The company first turned on app-usage data on Google’s Pixel 10, and later included iPhone 13 through 17. Now T-Mobile has turned on support across its coverage area, and here in 2025 a wider variety of Android and iOS devices are coming to the game as manufacturers roll out mandatory software updates pushing it out.
New phones earning app support on Cellular Starlink
The T-Mobile spec corporate machine mentions these models (these are NOT the real names):
- iPhone Air
- iPhone SE (third-gen)
- moto g 5G 2025
- moto g power 5G 2025
- Samsung Galaxy A36 SE
- Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
- Samsung Galaxy S24
- Samsung Galaxy S24+
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
- Samsung Galaxy S25
- Samsung Galaxy S25+
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6
The Pixel 9 and other devices are labeled coming soon.
More Android models will be added as we get through each OEM’s software updates, says T-Mobile VP of Strategic Partnerships Jeff Giard. On Apple’s side, customers on iOS 26 have the feature waiting for app approvals.
What the mobile data upgrade means for users
Cellular Starlink already backed up SMS/MMS and location sharing over satellite. With this update, T-Mobile says certain Android phones can use popular apps like WhatsApp (including video calls where available), X, Google Maps, and Yahoo Mail in locations where terrestrial towers may not reach. Giard says data support for WhatsApp, X, and Google Maps is incoming for iPhones as those apps get through the App Store approval process.
T-Mobile said that it has been collaborating with dozens of app developers to make software satellite-aware. Beyond the big social and navigation players, early partners include AccuWeather and outdoor navigation apps like AllTrails and CalTopo — not to mention T-Mobile’s own T‑Life. The goal is to keep core features — messaging, navigation tiles, crucial weather data — while pruning bandwidth-gorging elements on space connections.
Performance, Limits And Work Of A Developer
Satellite data is a very different thing than your land-based LTE or 5G connection: Throughput is limited, sure, but the latency can often spike as satellites move across the sky. In practice, T-Mobile and early testers have seen message send times balloon into tens of seconds during reconnection windows. Giard says the team is currently working on making such handoffs smoother and eliminating pauses, with a larger goal of making the transition between cell towers and satellites simply “invisible” to users.
Both Apple and Google, for their part, have shipped APIs aimed at helping developers sense such satellite links, then behave differently in response. AccuWeather, for example, reduces rich media and ads to the essentials — current conditions and alerts — whenever it detects a satellite path. It’s akin to how navigation apps cache map tiles, compress data, and delay updating in the background until the device returns to cellular coverage on land.
Network roadmap and capacity for satellite service
T-Mobile’s service sits on top of SpaceX’s constellation, which the company said has about 650 satellites in low Earth orbit that now can support direct-to-cell connections. In the short-term trajectory, densification in coverage and link budget, as well as seamless handoffs, play a central role. Voice over satellite is also on the way, T-Mobile and SpaceX engineers said, as they map a future where a call can float from cell site to satellite without even a noticeable glitch.
Capacity is another lever. SpaceX will purchase a tranche of valuable spectrum from EchoStar in a maneuver the two companies say could eventually boost Cellular Starlink throughput by twenty times — but not until more high‑tech spacecraft are launched and operational. SpaceX has also mentioned expanding the direct-to-cell fleet to tens of thousands of satellites. Regulatory momentum is growing as well: the FCC’s Supplemental Coverage from Space order put in place rules for carrier–satellite partnerships, including interference and coordination standards to enable this service.
Pricing and availability for T‑Satellite access
T-Satellite access costs an additional $10 a month for most users, including subscribers of other major carriers, who are allowed to pay only through the app or website, T-Mobile said. The company has not released subscriber totals, but store traffic and customer interest seem to tick up when satellite capabilities are shown off — particularly among hikers, boaters, and rural residents who have long played a game of dead zone hopscotch.
The practical advice, meanwhile, is much simpler: update your phone’s software, check your model’s service eligibility on T-Mobile’s support page, and download participating apps that are satellite-capable. You can expect slower speeds than terrestrial 5G as well as the occasional delay while a satellite comes into view, but also a practical blanket of safety and helpfulness in places where coverage used to fall all the way down to zero.
The more app partners and satellites you have, the less special mode should feel and the more constant connectivity should be the case. That’s the endgame as described by T-Mobile and SpaceX: your phone is just online — and it doesn’t matter if the signal came from a tower across town or a spacecraft overhead.
