Mobile communications on the mountain – calling will soon be possible everywhere – News

Why is? The mobile phone provider Salt wants to ensure seamless reception coverage for its Swiss customers thanks to the cooperation with the Starlink satellite network from Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX. From 2024, Salt customers in Switzerland should be able to send text messages via the Starlink satellites. From 2025, telephone calls and data exchange should also be possible.

What’s the point? With access to the Starlink satellites, mobile phone reception will soon also be possible in remote areas of Switzerland that are not yet or underserved, emphasizes Salt. The mobile phone provider wants to solve the reception problem in sparsely populated mountain valleys, hiking and mountain areas.

How does it work? Telephoning in remote areas via Starlink should be possible for Salt customers with normal smartphones. So you don’t need a special satellite phone. “The next generation of Starlink satellites will orbit the earth at an altitude of around 350 kilometers closer than the previous ones,” says SRF digital editor Peter Buchmann. Therefore they could also receive the relatively weak signal of a normal mobile phone.

How fast will it be? Salt is aiming for a connection speed of up to 15 megabits per second from 2025. It will theoretically even be possible to watch videos one day. This is in contrast to the Starlink system, which is already available in Switzerland, but which requires special receivers and receiving antennas and is relatively expensive. This system, which is already working, promises bandwidths of up to 250 megabits per second, albeit with considerable delays.