Tesla Will Use Starlink’s New Cellular Broadcasting Satellites

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s cars will be using Starlink’s new cellular broadcasting satellites for connections with T-Mobile users in the US. Potentially, this will be used for other operators as well. After T-Mobile and Starlink announced the partnership, Musk took to Twitter and also clarified that this will even work with Tesla’s cars which also work with the AT&T LTE network. Musk revealed that the connection will be able to provide satellite to cellular coverage from Starlink that will provide a 2-4 Mbps link which is shared by everyone in the satellite coverage area.

This means the speeds wouldn’t be fast enough for streaming 4k content or using some of the premium features of the Tesla cars like live streaming video from the car's cameras. Many believe this implementation could work in the way an MVNO like Google Fi works which works via many other carriers.

Tesla always came with connectivity packages but its sales have grown, and the electric car maker has scaled back the packages. Teslas that were purchased before June 2018 had a premium connectivity package at no additional cost. But the latest cars that have been bought post-July 20, 2022, come only with the standard connectivity package with in-car maps and navigation at best.

This could have also happened as AT&T has shut down its 3G network and older cars that don’t have an LTE modem could be required to do a $200 upgrade to stay connected. This would likely be applicable to cars that were sold before 2015.