Need to make a text from deep in the backcountry? latest T-Mobile satellite service can help you connect

In a boon to hunters, hikers and other backcountry adventurers, T-Mobile has joined the space-enabled communication world.

The cellular company’s T-Satellite service provides the ability to send a text message in places without cellphone service. It joins expensive satellite phones, Garmin inReach communicators and AT&T in providing the satellite-enabled services.

I tested the T-Satellite public beta, which is open with free access until July 23. During recent testing it worked wherever my Garmin mini-satellite communicator can send texts in New Mexico, including the Jemez Mountains and Jemez canyons. The Garmin inReach device costs $400 with a monthly minimum service charge of about $15.

During the T-Mobile beta, you can send and receive satellite-powered text messages from your iPhone for no extra charge. Up next for the service: sharing photos, use data and the ability to make voice calls, according to the T-Mobile website. Anyone with a compatible device with T-Mobile is eligible for T-Satellite beta trial; but limited spots are available. This technology is available in most areas, including New Mexico, most of the time. Ultimately, it will be available in most outdoor areas where you can see the sky, according to the website. Not all phones will work on this beta, and the phone needs the latest software updates.

“When T-Satellite launches in July, it will be included with our Experience Beyond and Go5G Next plans,” according to an email from Lyssa Ledger, a communications manager for T-Mobile.

“For a limited time, when customers sign up for Experience More, they will get free satellite service through the end of the year. Everybody else, including Verizon and AT&T customers, can get it for a limited time for $10/mo.”

For right now, the service/beta only includes SMS text messages (no photo messages just yet) . T-Satellite will be commercially available on July 23 and will include SMS texting, MMS picture messaging and short audio clips. On Oct. 1, T-Satellite will launch a data service to allow some phone apps to run on the network.

The service worked flawlessly to send and receive texts through day and night on a recent trip to the Jemez. The area I camped in near O’Neil Landing did not have any cellphone service, but the phone changed to SAT in the top right of the screen within seconds after awakening. Once in a while, it would lose connection apparently when the satellites moved across the sky at more than 17,000 mph, according to Mason Miller, a communications manager for T-Mobile. It doesn’t take long to restore a connection with the next Starlink soaring past.

I texted and received responses from Hawaii and Albuquerque while I sat around the campsite. Often, I would rather be out of touch, but in these cases it was for testing and for emergency information. My Garmin worked from the site as well and quickly sent a message, that included my GPS coordinates with a map attached, requiring no extra work.

More than just people on the T-Mobile beta are getting a taste of the service. Journal arts writer Logan Royce Beitmen reported that when returning from a recent trip to Taos, he was talking with his mother from a retirement community in South Florida like any good son, as he navigated the road toward Albuquerque. The cellphone call dropped, but the magic “SAT” and a message from T-Mobile appeared, and he was able to text his mother from deep within the canyon along the Rio Grande near Pilar. The service did have one flaw, it didn’t work in places with poor, but not no, cellphone service such as New Canyon Campground in the Mananzos.

Will it replace my Garmin mini and its monthly service charge? Probably not. But it negates the need for having two Garmins when adventurers are along the trail in different locations and trying to meet up. One can carry the Garmin and the other can have a T-Mobile cellphone with the new service.

“There’s no need to wave your phone around like a lighter,” T-Mobile says. “T-Satellite simply connects when it recognizes you’re out of range of any terrestrial network.”

Another option for overlanding adventurers comes from AT&T.

AT&T says its service is another tool in the satellite toolbox. “Direct-to-device satellite services will give customers the option to use their eligible everyday devices, without requiring incremental devices or apps, to get connectivity in places like wilderness areas, including our national park land, rural highways, and other hard to reach locations around the country.”

“Our customers with capable devices already have access to satellite features including peer-to-peer messaging and emergency satellite services,” according to an AT&T spokesperson. “In the near future, AT&T will offer direct-to-device satellite services through our collaboration with AST SpaceMobile, which will offer peer-to-peer texting, data, and voice services in remote, off-grid locations.”