That's why I carry my Garmin inReach whenever I leave the house for some far-flung adventure in the woods. Yet, while Garmin's had a stranglehold on the backcountry communications industry for years,

T-Mobile said on Sunday it has started wide-scale testing of its satellite-to-cell service, powered by SpaceX's Starlink, as the U.S. wireless carrier aims to eliminate mobile dead zones and extend connectivity to remote areas.

T-Mobile’s Starlink-powered direct-to-cell satellite messaging service is now open for anyone in the US to try for free — including people who aren’t T-Mobile customers. The service will be limited to text messaging at first but the company hopes to have some apps and even limited multimedia support ready by the time it goes live this summer.