T-Mobile appears to be making it easier for more people to give its satellite service a shot. After putting extra steps in the way for AT&T and Verizon customers, the carrier has now opened the door again for those users to sign up for T-Satellite online instead of having to call customer service or visit a store.
As reported by PhoneArena, T-Mobile had originally let AT&T and Verizon users enroll through its website during the beta period. But once the service officially launched, those same users had to go through a more complicated process to join. That has now changed, with the easier online sign-up option returning for customers on rival networks.
The move makes sense when you look at how satellite service is actually being used. T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan recently noted that usage has mostly been concentrated in places like national parks, which lines up with the idea that this kind of feature matters most when regular cell coverage disappears. If people only need it from time to time, making them jump through hoops to sign up was probably not helping adoption.
T-Satellite also gives T-Mobile something it can lean on against AT&T and Verizon. According to the report, the competing carriers have satellite features of their own, but their availability and capabilities are still more limited. T-Mobile’s service supports not only messaging, but also data apps, and the report adds that recent partnerships have expanded availability to Canada and New Zealand as well.
There is still the question of whether enough people want to pay for it. An October Ookla report shared that T-Mobile users made up more than 71% of T-Satellite connections, while the average U.S. user is disconnected from a land-based network only about 2.79% of the time. For people who spend a lot of time off the grid, that gap can matter a lot. For everyone else, it may be harder to justify the monthly cost.
Right now, the price for non-T-Mobile customers is $10 per month, and the same price applies to T-Mobile users who are not on the Experience Beyond or Better Value plans. Another TD Cowen analysis stated that most customers would pay at least $5 per month for satellite connectivity. That suggests T-Mobile may have done the easy part first by removing the sign-up headache, but pricing could still decide how many people actually come aboard.
Source: PhoneArena