Key Points
- Starlink has signed its largest direct-to-cell deal with telecoms group Veon, reaching over 150 million potential customers.
- The service will initially launch with Veon’s operators in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, starting in late 2025.
- Direct-to-cell technology allows standard smartphones to connect to satellites for service in remote areas.
- The partnership is non-exclusive, and Veon is also in talks with other satellite providers like Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
Elon Musk’s Starlink, a part of SpaceX, has landed its largest direct-to-cell deal yet with the telecoms group Veon. The agreement gives Starlink access to over 150 million potential customers, both companies announced on Thursday, as the race to provide satellite-to-smartphone connectivity heats up.
Direct-to-cell technology lets regular smartphones connect to satellite networks in space, which then send telephone signals back to Earth. This market has been growing quickly, with big investments aimed at providing coverage in remote areas where traditional cell service is unavailable.
The deal will allow Veon to add Starlink’s service to its own networks. It will start with Beeline in Kazakhstan and Kyivstar in Ukraine. Veon also operates in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan.
Kyivstar is set to launch the service in the fourth quarter of 2025, with Beeline following in 2026. The agreement with Kazakhstan was announced during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit to Washington on Thursday.
“This is the biggest partnership in terms of addressable customer base in the world,” Ilya Polshakov, Kyivstar’s new business director, told Reuters. “There will be more announced soon.”
The partnership is not exclusive, meaning Veon can still enter into deals with other satellite providers. In August, Veon’s CEO Kaan Terzioglu mentioned that the company was also in talks with Amazon’s Project Kuiper, AST SpaceMobile, and Eutelsat OneWeb.
Competitors like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon’s Project Kuiper are also building their own satellite networks, with initial commercial launches expected in 2026.
Starlink already has more than 7 million users worldwide and works with telecom operators in 11 countries, including T-Mobile in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada. The company operates over 8,000 satellites, of which 650 are dedicated to direct-to-cell services.
