Britons could make satellite phone calls using smartphones by the end of this year, Ofcom has said.
The telecoms regulator said on Tuesday that it would consult on proposals to allow satellites to beam mobile signals to standard smartphones, enabling users to make calls and send texts where there is no coverage from masts on the ground.
The emergence of satellite-enabled phones is being hailed as the most significant revolution in mobile communication in decades and could help end the era of “not spots” in mobile networks, although access to such services in the UK is likely to be limited to very rural areas.
Previously, satellite-enabled phone services were available only to a niche group of users, such as ships and aircraft, and with specialist handsets.
However, experts said satellite-to-mobile-phone connections would not be good enough to replace traditional mobile services, since connections will be at slower speeds and often require handsets to be in sight of the satellite.
James Robinson, senior analyst at Assembly Research, said “direct-to-device” services would be an important part of finishing the “connectivity puzzle” but cautioned that they would “not be able to replicate traditional 4G and 5G networks”.
The UK is the first country in Europe to move ahead with D2D authorisation, while the EU is consulting on similar proposals until the end of the month. Similar services are already available in the US, Canada and Australia.
In January, Vodafone said it had made the world’s first satellite-enabled video call on a mobile from an area with no network coverage. This month, the UK operator signed a deal with satellite company AST Space Mobile to create a jointly owned European satellite service provider.
“[D2D] brings mobile service to those areas that we would never have reached, including the sea,” Vodafone chief executive Margherita Della Valle said after the January call.
Ofcom said it aimed to “accept requests” to offer satellite services by the end of the year, though preventing harmful interference to existing users of radio networks, which experts have raised as a concern, would be a condition of any authorisation.
The proposals would allow satellite operators to use electromagnetic waves — known as radio spectrum — to connect mainstream handsets in the UK. The watchdog would allow satellite operators to use the spectrum allocated to terrestrial mobile operators.
Identifying appropriate terrestrial spectrum could be a significant challenge for new D2D services, according to Tim Farrar of TMF Associates and Armand Musey of Summit Ridge Group in a recent report.
“Spectrum licences are extremely valuable when used for terrestrial mobile broadband [and] mobile operators may be reluctant to set aside substantial amounts of unimpaired terrestrial spectrum for D2D use on a multi-region basis or even . . . near cities so that D2D can be used to fill in coverage gaps,” they said.
It was also not clear what price consumers would pay for the service, Farrar and Musey added.
Ofcom previously said four companies, including satellite operators Amazon Kuiper and Lynk Global, had expressed interest in providing D2D services in mobile bands in the UK in a call for responses last year.
Responses to the consultation are due by May.
