Three Major Airlines Are Aiming to (Almost) End Dead Zones in the United States.
I’m always a little surprised when I find myself in a “dead zone.” It’s 2026; we’ve had cell phones since the 1980s; modern 5G connections can rival home internet speeds; and yet, there are still far too many places in the country without cellular coverage. While those cellular networks may not be nationwide anytime soon, it’s likely that in the near future you’ll be hard-pressed to find a place in the US where you can’t make a call.
These airlines are working to eliminate dead zones in America.
On Thursday, Verizon issued a press release with a rather important announcement : the three largest cellular networks (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) are pooling their resources to try to eliminate “dead zones” in America. The idea is to expand satellite communications across all three networks to directly address coverage issues across the country, particularly in “unserved and underserved communities.” This is especially important for remote areas of the state where traditional cellular service is virtually nonexistent.
While the press release doesn’t claim the joint venture will completely eliminate “dead zones,” it does emphasize that the plan is to “nearly eliminate” them in the U.S. But the goal goes beyond simply filling coverage gaps. By increasing satellite connectivity and thus increasing coverage redundancy, the operators believe this will improve reliability in emergency situations: when everyone is trying to make calls and send messages over cellular networks at the same time, they slow down or stop working entirely. Deploying a more reliable satellite network will provide another means of communication in these high-traffic situations. According to the press release, the operators will also partner with rural mobile operators to expand service to their customer base.
Satellite communications are all the rage right now. Cellular carriers and smartphone manufacturers have been expanding their support for satellite communications in recent years. For example, Apple now allows iPhone users to send text messages to their contacts via satellite , even if they don’t have cellular service, and T-Mobile offers a similar service to its customers through Starlink . Of course, satellite communications aren’t necessarily the same as cellular communications: since the signal must travel all the way to a satellite orbiting the Earth, it takes much longer than with a standard cellular signal. Therefore, I’m not sure that a user using satellite communications in rural areas of the US will have as reliable a connection as someone connecting via 4G or 5G networks.
Nevertheless, satellite communications have literally saved lives in situations where cellular service was unavailable. If telecom operators want to team up to create a dedicated satellite communications network, I’m certainly open to it.