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Direct-to-Device: smartphones talking straight to satellites

Updated October 5, 2026

Smartphones connecting directly to satellites without specialized hardware.

The bottom line

The technology works and is selling; the contest now is over who owns the spectrum, and therefore who keeps the customer.

What is happening

Direct-to-Device is the most consumer-visible shift in satellite communications: an ordinary, unmodified smartphone connects straight to a satellite using standard cellular protocols. Messaging, emergency SOS and app data are commercially available today.

Three camps have formed, and what separates them is spectrum rather than engineering — one operator buying its own, one acquiring an incumbent to inherit it, one renting its carrier partners'. The spectrum section below lays out where each leads. The limit is physical: D2D is an outdoor service, because the link budget from a handset has no margin to spare for a wall.

Latest signals

October 2, 2026AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon formally incorporated their direct-to-device joint venture, covering satellite calling, device compatibility and shared spectrum use.

Sources: AT&T

August 6, 2026The FCC opened a rulemaking proposing unlicensed Earth-to-space links for direct-to-device, in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands.

Sources: FCC 26-51

July 24, 2026Amazon filed with the FCC for up to 5,105 direct-to-device satellites, with deployment from 2028.

Source: FCC filing

May 12, 2026The FCC approved transfer of roughly 65 MHz of EchoStar spectrum to SpaceX for its next-generation D2D network.

Sources: FCC DA 26-471

April 14, 2026Amazon agreed to acquire Globalstar, inheriting licensed MSS spectrum and the Apple satellite relationship running on it.

Source: SEC filing

Spectrum decides the business model

Every D2D deal ultimately answers one question: whose spectrum is the phone talking on? The answer determines who owns the customer, who can be replaced, and how much of the value the satellite operator keeps. There are four routes, and the industry is visibly moving down the list.

Borrowed: The mobile operator's spectrum, leased In service

How it works
The satellite transmits inside a mobile operator's licensed terrestrial band. In the US this runs under the FCC's Supplemental Coverage from Space framework, adopted 14 March 2024, which permits it only where the terrestrial licensees holding every co-channel licence across a defined area lease those rights to the satellite operator.
Who owns the customer
The mobile operator keeps the subscriber. The satellite operator is a wholesale coverage supplier.
Example
SpaceX leases 10 MHz of T-Mobile PCS G-block spectrum (1910-1915 / 1990-1995 MHz), authorised by the FCC in November 2024. T-Mobile launched T-Satellite commercially on 23 July 2025 and added app data on 1 October 2025.
Caution
Because the lessors must hold all co-channel licences across the whole area, this route tends toward one satellite partner per carrier per market. The UK arrived at the same place by a different mechanism: Ofcom confirmed its framework in December 2025, under which an operator varies its own licence to permit satellite use, and Virgin Media O2 took the first variation.

Sources: FCC SCS Report & Order (FCC 24-28) · FCC authorisation DA 24-1193 · Ofcom D2D framework

Owned: The satellite operator's own MSS spectrum In service

How it works
The operator works in spectrum allocated primarily to Mobile Satellite Service, talking to devices licensed under satellite rules. No terrestrial licensee sits in the path, so no lease is required.
Who owns the customer
The satellite operator can hold the customer directly, or reach them through a device maker instead of a carrier.
Example
Globalstar's L- and S-band MSS has carried Apple's Emergency SOS since November 2022 - a satellite service reaching hundreds of millions of handsets with no mobile operator in the path. Amazon agreed on 14 April 2026 to acquire Globalstar for roughly $11.5 billion, expected to close in 2027; Rocket Lab agreed on 29 June 2026 to acquire Iridium and its globally harmonised L-band at an enterprise value of about $8 billion, expected mid-2027.
Caution
Band n53 is often mistaken for Apple's satellite link. It is Globalstar's terrestrial authority in the same band, marketed for private 5G - not the path to the satellite. Both acquisitions are agreed but not yet closed.

Sources: Globalstar / Amazon merger agreement (SEC) · Rocket Lab / Iridium announcement (SEC)

Bought: Terrestrial licences acquired outright Approved, closing 2027

How it works
The satellite operator buys the mobile licences themselves and becomes the licensee. The lease the SCS framework requires becomes an internal arrangement rather than a dependency on another carrier.
Who owns the customer
The satellite operator sets its own terms. The FCC stated the consequence plainly: with a dedicated supply of D2D spectrum, it expects SpaceX to be able to compete with incumbent terrestrial wireless providers.
Example
EchoStar agreed in September 2025 to sell its AWS-4 and H-block licences to SpaceX for about $17 billion, adding unpaired AWS-3 that November for roughly $2.6 billion. The FCC approved the assignment of approximately 65 MHz on 12 May 2026, with a $2.4 billion escrow condition. The licences moved into a trust on 22 May 2026; final transfer is targeted for around 30 November 2027.
Caution
Owning spectrum removes the spectrum dependency, not every partnership - SpaceX still serves T-Mobile and holds a commercial agreement covering EchoStar's Boost Mobile subscribers. And the deal is approved, not yet closed.

Sources: FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order DA 26-471

Unlicensed: No licence at all Proposed

How it works
The FCC has proposed letting ordinary unlicensed devices transmit directly to authorised satellites, on a non-interference basis and at the Part 15 power limits those devices already use.
Who owns the customer
Neither a licence nor a lease - and potentially no carrier in the path at all.
Example
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted on 6 August 2026 covers Earth-to-space uplinks in 2400-2483.5 MHz and 5725-5850 MHz - the bands Wi-Fi and Bluetooth already occupy, just over 208 MHz in total. Comments are due 9 November 2026, replies 7 December 2026.
Caution
This is a proposal; nothing is authorised yet. An earlier FCC draft also listed 902-928 MHz, and much of the trade coverage repeated it, but that band was not carried into the adopted text.

Sources: FCC NPRM 26-51 (ET Docket 26-169) · Federal Register notice

Europe is rewriting its rules at the same time. On 27 May 2026 the European Commission proposed a single Union-level authorisation for the 2 GHz MSS band (1980-2010 / 2170-2200 MHz), dividing it into six paired 5 MHz blocks: two for a secure governmental system reserved to EU-owned or EU-controlled providers, two prioritised for Union new entrants, and two open to all applicants including non-EU operators. Today's rights, held by EchoStar Mobile and Viasat, expire in May 2027. It is a proposal, not yet law.

Sources: COM(2026) 311 final (EUR-Lex)

What happens next

Only things already announced, filed, or frozen into a standard - no forecasts. Dates that companies have publicly revised are shown as such, because in this industry they move.

Running today — 2026

The decision year — 2027

Build-out — 2028-2029

The 6G horizon — 2030s

What the roadmap does not fix

3GPP wrote the indoor limit into its satellite standards as an assumption rather than an open problem. TR 38.811 states it outright: 'Only outdoor conditions are considered for satellite operations, since performance requirements are not expected to be met with the available link budget for indoor communications.' The reference link budgets assume every user is outdoors under clear sky with zero additional loss - and even then, the carrier-to-noise ratio for a 2 GHz handset ranges from about -16 dB to at best +7 dB.

The geometry is worse than intuition suggests. ITU-R P.2109 adds roughly 0.21 dB of building entry loss per degree of elevation, so a satellite directly overhead is about 19 dB worse than one low on the horizon: the signal passes through roof and floor slabs instead of a window. Median entry loss at 2 GHz is around 15 dB horizontally and 33 dB overhead in a traditional building, rising to about 47 dB overhead in a thermally-efficient one. Between 0.7 and 2 GHz the frequency barely matters - construction and angle dominate.

Regulators have written that reality into the rules: the FCC measures SpaceX's coverage obligations with the user outdoors. Carriers say it plainly - T-Mobile warns that coverage may not be available inside buildings, and Apple tells users to be outside. AST SpaceMobile is the one operator claiming otherwise, saying its network reaches one wall in; that is the company's own claim rather than an independently verified measurement.

Those reference link budgets come from a 2019-2020 study assuming modest satellite apertures, and today's large phased arrays do better. The direction of the constraint has not changed.

Sources: 3GPP TR 38.811 · ITU-R P.2109-2 · FCC DA 26-471

Open challenges

Companies to watch

AST SpaceMobile, SpaceX, Elveo Mobile, Apple, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sateliot, Iridium, SES, Amazon, Globalstar.

Which phones and plans support it?

See the satellite phone guide for every phone, carrier service and price, checked monthly.

Related reading

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