Australia’s Telstra has announced it plans to bring Starlink’s Direct-To-Cell (DTC) technology to the vast island continent.
Starlink’s DTC technology will expand coverage in Australia for text messaging, particularly in remote regions in the country. The coverage will also extend some 20km offshore.
Telstra, which boasts the most extensive mobile network coverage in Australia spanning 3 million square kilometers, services numerous areas where mobile and fixed networks are unavailable. Starlink’s DTC technology will complement Telstra’s existing land-based mobile network and offer basic connectivity in areas that have never had coverage before, solving a challenge for Australia’s many remote locations.
Telstra says it plans to begin testing DTC soon, but has not announced an official date for when the service will be available. As with New Zealand’s One NZ, which became the world’s first carrier to launch DTC services last month, it will initially only support text messaging, but will later expand to include voice and data.
This will be Telstra’s second collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink. The first involved using Starlink for Telstra’s home and small business fixed internet products.
Rogers in Canada has been testing Starlink DTC technology across the country, but is still awaiting regulatory approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch the service.
