Ukraine’s leading mobile operator Kyivstar has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink to introduce direct-to-cell satellite connectivity, Kyivstar’s parent company VEON said on Monday. <\/p>\n
Direct-to-cell devices are connected to satellites equipped with modems that function like a cellphone tower, beaming phone signals from space directly to smartphones. <\/p>\n
Kyivstar expects direct-to-cell services with messaging functionality to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2025, the telecoms group said in a joint statement. The operator will expand voice and data services in later stages. <\/p>\n
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. <\/p>\n
SpaceX-owned Starlink, which also provides critical internet connectivity to war-torn Ukraine and its military, launched its first set of satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities earlier this year. <\/p>\n
The satellite broadband firm has struck deals with local providers for direct-to-cell services in the U.S. and seven other countries, including Japan and New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Ukraine will be one of the first countries in the world with direct-to-cell connectivity and the first conflict zone where Starlink will roll out this technology, according to its website. <\/p>\n
Russia has ramped up its efforts to jam signals between Starlink satellites and ground terminals in Ukraine since 2022. <\/p>\n
The agreement comes as Musk, Starlink’s owner, grows more engaged with the incoming Trump administration in the U.S. and its Ukraine strategy. <\/p>\n
In November, he joined a call between President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which he said he would continue supplying Starlink satellites to Ukraine, Axios reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukraine’s leading mobile operator Kyivstar has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink to introduce direct-to-cell satellite connectivity, Kyivstar’s parent company VEON said on Monday. Direct-to-cell devices are connected to satellites equipped with modems that function like a cellphone tower, beaming phone signals from space directly to smartphones. Kyivstar expects direct-to-cell services with messaging functionality to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2025, the telecoms group said in a joint statement. The operator will expand voice and data services in later stages. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. SpaceX-owned Starlink, which also provides critical internet connectivity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}