Satellite-to-cell · the category, explained
Direct-to-cell: what it is, who's shipping it, and what it can't do yet
There is no new phone. The satellite pretends to be a mast.
Direct-to-cell is a satellite service that talks to an ordinary, unmodified mobile handset. The satellite carries the mobile operator's own spectrum and behaves like a cell tower your phone already knows how to connect to — that is the whole trick, and it is why the data rates are tiny.
Is direct-to-cell the same as satellite-to-cell?
In ordinary use, yes — both describe a satellite link to an unmodified mobile phone. The confusion is that Direct to Cell is also SpaceX's own product name for the Starlink service, so the phrase works as a category and as a brand at the same time. Our plain-English explainer covers the terminology in more depth.
Who is actually shipping it?
Several carriers now run live consumer services, and the practical difference between them is not the satellites but which apps the carrier admits.
| Market | Service | What it carries today |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | O2 Satellite | Live for compatible phones and plans, with a selected list of supported apps |
| United Kingdom | VodafoneThree | Customer trials announced, not a general service |
| United States | T-Mobile T-Satellite | Messaging, location and selected app data on compatible phones |
| Canada | Rogers Satellite | Selected app data |
| Australia | Telstra Satellite | Messaging and selected apps; Telstra warns real-time calls may be intermittent |
| New Zealand | One NZ Satellite | Selected app data |
The dated, source-linked version of this table — including what changed and when — lives on the satellite-to-cell status tracker, which is re-verified monthly.
Who builds the satellites?
Three constellation approaches dominate the current services: Starlink direct-to-cell (SpaceX), AST SpaceMobile, and Skylo, which uses existing geostationary satellites for narrowband messaging rather than a new low-orbit fleet. A carrier picks a partner; the customer sees only their own operator's brand.
Underneath all of them sits the same standards work — non-terrestrial networks in the 3GPP mobile standards — which is what allows an ordinary handset to treat a satellite as just another cell.
Why is it texting first, and not video?
Capacity is the reason: a single satellite beam covers an area a terrestrial mast never would and shares its capacity across everyone in that footprint, so services launch with the smallest useful payload and grow from there. A text is a few hundred bytes. A video call is not.
This is also why push-to-talk is a more plausible fit than a phone call: it sends short low-bitrate bursts only while someone holds the button, rather than holding a continuous two-way audio path open. That argument is set out in full on our satellite push-to-talk page — as a technical case, not a claim.
Where does CRAGGEN stand?
Our own status, stated plainly
CRAGGEN is a 4G/5G push-to-talk app. It is not carrier-approved on any satellite service and has not been field-tested on one. The Android app is technically prepared for constrained satellite networks — that is one of four gates, and the other three are carrier admission, a hardware field test and measured acceptance. Our row on the tracker reads "not yet" on every carrier, and it will keep reading that until it is untrue.
We'll tell you the day it changes
The tracker is re-checked monthly and within days of any carrier announcement — including the entries where the answer is still no.
Dated sources · carrier pages, not blogs · our own row reads "not yet"