Getting a mobile connections across Australia isn’t always easy. While improvements to the maps make it easier to work out where reception is and isn’t, getting a connection in places where it clearly isn’t available is still a problem.
It’s an issue Telstra began delivering a fix for around this time last year, launching a satellite text messaging capability for select phones, such as iPhones and Samsung Galaxy models.
In the time since, Telstra’s satellite service has seen over 26 million texts sent and received, over 2.9 million users connected, and an average of over 200,000 daily connections. That suggests satellite is fulfilling a need Australian customers desperately want to use, delivering connections where mobile towers don’t always cover.
One year on, Telstra is expanding the technology for customers, improving the satellite connectivity to a select assortment of apps that will now work on the service, even if they mightn’t be as dependable compared to a 4G and 5G network.
The app assortment includes mapping and navigation apps, including Apple Maps and Google Maps, the native included weather apps across iPhone and Android, Google Fitness, Telstra’s own app, and also messaging apps, covering Google’s Messages, Apple’s iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Signal, and WhatsApp.
Rolling these out across satellite will mean Telstra customers with both a supported device and these apps will be able to use them in remote places where satellite connectivity is offered in lieu of a proper 4G and 5G mobile connection.
As for why not every app is included, Telstra notes that satellite connectivity tends to be more limited and intermittent, and so most apps aren’t ready for that level of connectivity.
However, it also means that on services where constant connectivity is important for the apps to work — such as making voice calls in WhatsApp — that you might struggle to get voice working consistently over satellite. The app will still work this way, it just mightn’t be as good as connection as if on either WiFi or a high-speed mobile connection.
What you won’t be able to use the service for is to call triple zero, with neither WhatsApp nor the satellite service providing access.
However, specific devices such as the iPhone may support satellite SOS capabilities, essentially providing a solution if you do have an emergency. It’s just not the same emergency solution.
In terms of who can use the service, for that you’ll need to be a Telstra subscriber and out of reach of a regular 4G or 5G mobile connection, while using a recent iPhone from the 2021 iPhone 13 model and higher, or even an Android customer with a Samsung Galaxy S25 model and higher, including this year’s S26 Ultra.
