How AllTrails Will Take Advantage of T-Mobile’s Hook Up with Starlink
US-based cell provider, T-Mobile, had just announced a hook-up with Musk’s Starlink satellite service to provide off-grid coverage to hikers and explorers. The clear benefit is emergency coverage in previously unreachable areas, posing a competitive threat to the Garmin inReach service, which uses the Iridium satellite network.
AllTrails has signalled its involvement in the early stages of the project, and this probably ties in with the recent decision by Apple to include AllTrails as the only sports/fitness type app that will be involved in the initial development of Apple Intents (part of next-Gen Siri), reported here earlier in the week.
Apple Intents – Is Garmin Connect+ the First Sports App to Work with the New Siri?
T-Satellite and AllTrails Integration
T-Mobile’s service is imaginatively called T-Satellite and will initially focus on text messaging and location sharing, with data support for AllTrails planned for October 1, 2025.
AllTrails has been named by T-Mobile as a ‘satellite optimised’ app along with WhatsApp, X, Google and AccuWeather. From Alltrail’s perspective, this means that its app will get access to maps, trails, and other features in areas without cellular coverage.
The key benefit is that specialised prior-gen technology to access satellites is unnecessary.
Enhanced Safety with Live Tracking
T-Satellite will let AllTrails subscribers share a live track (breadcrumb track) of their progress with friends and family. In days gone by, the breadcrumb trail would simply stop when you entered an uncovered area. Now, the service seamlessly switches to satellite, and those watching your progress are none the wiser that you are out of regular cell range.
This is similar to the inReach service already offered by Garmin. Just cheaper and using a kit you likely already own (a phone).
Smarter Hiking with Siri and Apple Intents
By leveraging the upcoming Apple Intents, AllTrails should be able to go beyond simply taking advantage of the next-gen Siri (ie one that hopefully works properly). The Intents part of the new Siri looks at your previous interactions and determines what you are about to do; apps ‘expose’ certain permitted information for Siri to leverage.
Indicative Example: Jo is preparing for a weekend trip near the Blue Ridge Mountains. “Siri, find a pet-friendly trail, moderate difficulty, around 7 miles.” Siri, leveraging AllTrails’ App Intents, responds, “Crabtree Falls Trail, 7.2 miles, moderate, allows pets. Save it?” Jo agrees, and later, when near the trailhead, Siri proactively suggests the trail via a lock screen widget. Jo uses a voice command to start live tracking, sharing his location with his family for safety.
How T-Satellite Works for AllTrails Users
Starlink has over 650 satellites and will provide coverage of most of the USA from launch, available on more recent devices from iPhone 13+ and Google Pixel 9 onwards. It’s a national solution.
It’s also a seamless solution that will switch between cell and satellite as easily as the switch you experience when getting home and going from cell to Wifi.
Alltrails maps, reviews, and navigation will work as before…just in more places.
Pricing, Availability, and Emergency Features
T-Satellite offers text messaging, location sharing, and text-to-911, with free 911 texting planned for October 2025 (conveniently, this will be as the new iPhone and Watch Ultra 3 start to ship…strange coincidence!)
The standalone cost is $10/month (increasing to $15/month) or included in some of T-Mobile’s plans.
Take Out: A Game-Changer for Outdoor Adventures?
The warning bell was sounded a couple of years ago when Apple announced its latest iPhone would have satellite capabilities.
Sure, there will always be questions about speed, proper coverage, what data services are supported, and the real cost. That said, the clear trend is towards democratising satellite access. Off-cell-grid coverage will become faster, more capable, and cheaper over time. And it was only a matter of time before a much wider range of apps and services would leverage the new capabilities – as we see now.
AllTrails has achieved an impressive jump on the competition, getting in at the first stages of a more general consumer rollout. Will it retain the first-mover advantage? I suspect RideWithGPS and Strava are behind the curve on this one.
Mr Musk knew where this was all heading when he started Starlink. Did Mr Garmin? Remember, to stay meaningful, Garmin has to offer these services from an autonomous watch, not one paired to a smartphone, piggybacking an indirectly connected service. if Garmin can’t do that, will its inReach service wither and die in the face of new, more agile and cheaper competition?
sources and Resources
- Teslarati is a place for Musk and Tesla things. Just a link…not a recommendation. Don’t bite me.
- The Verge.
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We’ve had this exact service in NZ since January this year with OneNZ (formally Vodafone) – they linked up with Starlink and it’s a totally free service as long as you have a compatible device. What’s more, all phone users (nationally), regardless of supplier can piggyback the service for emergency calls (111,999,911 etc.) it’s fantastic for a country that is so rural and loves adventure and has been a game changer, but for some reason no one talks about it. Why the interest in Tmobiles paid offering which is nothing new? Very much second place to the kiwis!
the Americans will catch up one day
I’m still trying to get T-Mobile to activate this on my corporate line… whenever I’m successful at that, I’m definitely ditching my InReach.
The InReach was a fantastic device and service when there was really no other option, but Iridium is decades-old technology at this point and there’s just no reason to pay more for InReach and be stuck having to carry another device with me that has painfully slow send/receive times.
Also the fact that InReach doesn’t give you a dedicated phone number, or let you use your existing number, it makes it impossible for anyone to reach you unless you’ve messaged them first. Which is very inconvenient.