The FCC has granted Starlink and T-Mobile permission to activate their satellite texting service in Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival. SpaceX announced that Starlink’s Direct to Cell satellites will provide emergency alerts for all phones in affected areas, not just T-Mobile’s. T-Mobile subscribers can also use basic texting and text 911 during the storm, even if they lose network connectivity. The companies are currently delivering Starlink kits in response to Hurricane Helene while preparing to offer their messaging service this year. Users can identify a connection to a Starlink satellite by seeing “T-Mobile SpaceX” as their network name and may need to resend messages manually if they don’t go through initially.
