We may be seeing what appears to be one of the first public sightings of Rogers’ upcoming satellite cellular service powered by SpaceX’s Starlink.
A Reddit user showed a screenshot from their phone yesterday displaying “Rogers Satellite” with “RAT: LTE” while in northwest Ontario. Although they couldn’t connect to the network—likely due to not having the feature enabled on their account—the satellite signal was clearly visible to their device. Check out the screenshot below (emphasis ours):
Others chimed in, asking about supported frequency bands and comparing the service to T-Mobile’s satellite-to-phone setup in the U.S. The original poster explained it’s expected to support SMS and emergency calling at first, with wider capabilities coming later as infrastructure builds out.
While no official word has come from Rogers yet, this appearance suggests that the company’s Starlink-based service may be in early testing.
As for pricing? Starlink’s first cellular partner is T-Mobile inthe U.S. and pricing is from $10 USD per month, but also available for rival carriers at $20 USD per month.
What makes Starlink’s Direct to Cell service so compelling is that it allows any smartphone with an LTE connection to get online in areas with zero cell coverage. This makes it a lifesaver if you’re stuck out in the wild and need emergency help, thanks to Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit.
Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite offers supported iPhones emergency texting when you’re out of cellular coverage and has already saved lives. But you need to have an iPhone 14 or newer and coverage is not across the planet, unlike Starlink.
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Cool, we all want it with 5-10 Mbps internet… Not really SMS, but that's still neat.
ASTS is doing that and working with Verizon and ATT. Unlike Starlink that does text only this service will give you text, calls, & data
I thought we ditched Elon stuff .. where is Canada's version??
UGH. Boycott Rogers time.
I appreciate the sentiment, but until there is choice a boycott seems silly. There is a real need for rural communication across our country. Canadian alternatives are in development
Right, they should show up in about 30yrs
That image has been heavily doctored. It's an Android interface and Rogers doesn't have WCDMA. In fact WCDMA has been shut down for many years now by all providers in Canada.
That's CDMA. Bell and Telus some of the government telcos CDMA networks were shut down pre-COVID. WCDMA is a 3G technology that was used on 850 and 1900mHz by Bell and Rogers. It never really got attention because it all showed up as "3G" to the consumer. It's a code division access versus time division access system that both messed around with before moving to fully IP based systems with 4G and LTE.