SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert late last week announced plans to start delivering service through SpaceX’s Starlink by the end of next year in the United States…

Sievert described the vision as putting cell towers in the sky, but “a lot harder.”
The partnership would effectively enable cellphones to do what satellite phones can do, Jon Peha, former FCC chief technologist and professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, tells Axios.
“They’re no longer separate devices. It’s one device that does both,” he said.

State of play: AST SpaceMobile and Lynk are other major competitors working to make cell coverage direct from space a reality…

The ultimate goal is to offer high-speed mobile internet access via satellite.

“No one company or even a number of these companies [will] be able to meet all the needs,” Peha said.