- T-Mobile’s Jeff Giard told CCA attendees that T-Satellite use is happening exactly where you’d expect: remote areas like the ones CCA members serve
- The end game isn’t satellite vs. cellular – it’s making the connection so seamless that customers don’t have to think about which network they’re on
- According to T-Mobile, consumers want the full mobile experience – including TikTok – even off the grid
CCA ANNUAL CONVENTION, NEW ORLEANS — Jeff Giard, VP of Business Development and Partnerships at T-Mobile, kicked off his keynote here at the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) conference by showing a video that was made four years ago when T-Mobile announced its partnership with SpaceX.
The video depicted people in some extremely remote locations where the only means to communicate was through satellite: hikers in the back country and public safety officers responding to crises, for example.
Those scenes are just as relevant today as they were then because as it turns out, most of T-Mobile’s direct-to-device (D2D) usage happens in places like national parks where it’s impossible to get service from a terrestrial network.
Giard’s message was clear: The goal for any network operator these days should be to keep customers connected no matter where they are – and consumers shouldn’t need to worry about how they’re getting connected, so long as it works.
“It's always been about making the connection as seamless as possible for the customer,” he said.
Early days: similar to Wi-Fi
In the early days, getting coverage from satellites was similar to how Wi-Fi was a separate experience and customers had to switch back and forth manually. Eventually, Wi-Fi became seamless and nowadays, consumers often don’t even know whether they’re connected via cellular or Wi-Fi.
That speaks to one of the things T-Mobile has heard loud and clear since the launch of T-Satellite: People don’t care how it gets to them: They just want their TikTok videos to work all the time.
Getting to that stage isn’t necessarily easy. Giard said one of the hardest things in getting T-Satellite up and running was convincing Apple, Google and Samsung to make changes in their phones so that customers could get a satellite experience as close as possible to what they’re accustomed to receiving with cellular.
That’s something he hopes will be made easier as T-Mobile teams with rivals Verizon and AT&T in the satellite joint venture they announced earlier this year.
The intent is to “remove that fragmentation so that we can have a common set of technical requirements for OEMs,” Giard said.
That way, they can approach the likes of Apple and Google with one voice and work together to ensure that handoffs between satellite and terrestrial networks happen seamlessly with next-generation constellations, he said.
T-Mobile, other CCA members
T-Mobile happens to be the largest wireless carrier in CCA’s membership; most CCA members are Tier 2 and 3 operators that have fewer than 1 million customers.
Despite their small size – or maybe because of it – some of them are interested in seeing how they can partner with the likes of SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and other up-and-coming D2D satellite players.
Last year, SpaceX’s intentions in the mobile space were just starting to heat up, and operators attending CCA’s 2025 annual convention were trying to get a read on things.
Since the company’s IPO earlier this year, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Gwynne Shotwell have made it clear that they aim to compete in the mobile terrestrial market in addition to their satellites in the sky, providing global coverage that rivals terrestrial carriers.
Whether it’s a lot of talk to get to the ultimate goal of striking an MVNO agreement with one or more carriers, who knows? Either way, CCA members aren’t sitting idle. Some of them met with AST SpaceMobile and other prospective satellite partners at this week’s show in the hopes of exploring or striking some kind of agreement with them.
Both sides seem to be angling toward that kind of outcome. Sweetening the pot, so to speak, SpaceX sponsored the coffee that was served during Tuesday’s morning session.
Satellites in Alaska
Whatever the motivation, the notion that satellite companies like SpaceX should be considered friends rather than foes was a theme that ran throughout the conference.
On the show floor, John Myhre, principal of Wireless Strategy at GCI Communications, said he’s not a big believer that satellites will overtake terrestrial coverage, including in his home state of Alaska.
“The physics are what they are” and signals from satellites don’t penetrate buildings that well, at least not for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, the prospect of Starlink immediately taking over GCI’s terrestrial wireless coverage in Alaska doesn’t ring true. That said, there’s a lot of territory in Alaska that is well suited to be served by satellites, whether that be Starlink or another up-and-coming player.
“We’ll certainly want to partner with whoever can do that,” he said, noting that conversations with satellite service providers are already taking place.
“It’s a partnership, not a competitive situation,” he said.
The true test: hot wings
To put a finer point on that idea, consider what happened when CCA members participated in a panel shortly after Giard gave his presentation. Titled “Burn on Bourbon Street,” the session featured four panelists who were challenged to answer questions while they ate chicken wings that got increasingly spicy.
At one point nearing the end of the session, moderator Ron Willett of ClearSky asked whether satellite is a companion or a competitor to regional carriers.
David Zylka, chief technology officer at Carolina West Wireless who remains with the company while it gets absorbed by Verizon, took a bite of the “French Quarter Fallout,” the hot sauce that is said to so strong that it’s ranked as “extreme,” and “for pros only.”
Let’s just say, the sauce lived up to its reputation. Zylka was clearly feeling the heat.
If the “satellites are our friend” theme sounded a little like a talking point that everyone at the convention agreed to give to the public, it passed the “hot sauce as truth serum” test.
To be sure, “we can’t let them [satellites] get ahead of us,” Zylka said, adding that to the extent satellites can be used to fill gaps where terrestrial can’t reach, they should be considered a complement.
“I look at them as a companion,” he concluded – and heat or no heat, that’s where they left it.
Read more about regional carriers and satellites on Fierce Network
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