Verizon official outlines satellite-direct-to-device vision after AST SpaceMobile, Skylo deals

Verizon has announced deals with two different satellite-direct-to-device providers—AST SpaceMobile and Skylo—in an effort to provide its customers with layers of redundant connectivity, even when they are in outdoor locations that are beyond the coverage footprint of any wireless provider, according to a Verizon official.

Srini Kalapala, Verizon’s senior vice president and chief product-development officer, said Verizon believes the two satellite-direct-to-device operators promise to provide different capabilities for customers—and additional resiliency that he believes will be particularly attractive to the first-responder community.

“From a public-safety perspective, we like it. Not only are we continuing to meet the public-safety folks’ requirements—even with 5G, we’re spending time on slicing—this gives them optionality,” Kalapala said today during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “If cellular is not available, now they’ll have two options: there’s going to be Skylo, and there’s going to be AST [SpaceMobile].

“To us, this gives the multiple layers of redundancy that public-safety folks will be looking for.”

While rivals AT&T and T-Mobile have trumpeted their pursuit of satellite-direct-to-device services for years, Verizon’s public entrance into the space has occurred only during the past four months. In May, AST SpaceMobile—the Midland, Texas-based company that has partnered with carriers like AT&T, Vodafone and Rakuten—announced a deal with Verizon. Last month, Verizon announced a deal with Skylo, which provides direct-to-device services via satellite partners that operate on L-band and S-band satellite spectrum.

Both Skylo and AST SpaceMobile plan to provide satellite-direct-to-device services, they differ in their approaches and commercial timelines, Kalapala said.

With Apple providing emergency SOS messaging for almost two years and announcing peer-to-peer messaging via satellite, Verizon has been seeking a way to provide similar functionality to its customers that use specific Android devices, Kalapala said.

This functionality first will be available to Verizon customers with Google Pixel 9 smartphones, and it will be supported by the Samsung flagship device that is expected to be released during the first quarter of next year, according to Kalapala.

“Skylo gives us the optionality of going with the NTN standard on satellite-only spectrum and give some service to our customers soon—on the Android side—to cover all of our customer bases,” he said. “Our view is we like to provide optionality to our customers.”

In contrast, AST SpaceMobile will use Verizon’s commercial spectrum, and its service is designed to work with any device that can operate on Verizon’s terrestrial network. Eventually, the AST SpaceMobile service promises to deliver a more cellular-like service to Verizon customers as it deploys its constellation of large low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, Kalapala said.

“[With AST SpaceMobile,] We expect emergency SOS and texting to start during the later part of next year, with data probably coming in ’26, and voice maybe in ’27,” Kalapala said.

AST SpaceMobile recently announced that its first five commercial LEO satellites are scheduled to be launched later this month.

Even if AST SpaceMobile is able to reach its lofty goals of supporting voice, data and even some video communications, Kalapala emphasized that no satellite-direct-to-device service will be robust enough to fully replace terrestrial wireless broadband networks. However, they can serve as a valuable “complement” to users trying to communicate outdoors in remote locations that lack terrestrial coverage.

“Satellite will always be inferior to cellular in terms of what we call bits per hertz or [cost per bit economics],” Kalapala said. “You will always get a lot more bits per unit cost using cellular rather than satellite. So, we don’t ever see this as a threat [to cellular service].

“We will continue to focus on delivering the best cellular coverage for our customers—we are already 99%-plus in coverage for the population in the U.S. … In the small areas where we don’t cover, sometimes we partner with roaming [carrier] partners; that will continue. Now, we’re talking about locations where there is not a Verizon signal and not a roaming-partner signal. Then, we’re saying, ‘There’s no signal available. How do you cover that?’ That’s where satellite comes in.”

This satellite-direct-to-device service promises to enhance Verizon’s overall coverage and provide redundant connectivity, but it probably will have little impact on the carrier’s decisions about where to locate cell sites in the future, according to Kalapala.

“Our view is that, when you use [Verizon] spectrum, that spectrum is best suited to being developed via cellular [terrestrial networks], first and foremost,” he said. “If I can deliver it economically and physically, I will build cellular connectivity—that’s [the strategy] Verizon follows.

“In the cases where I cannot build economically or are physically not possible … in those cases, we would use satellite.”

Kalapala also noted that users will not have to determine when to use Verizon’s terrestrial network, Skylo’s satellite offering, or AST SpaceMobile’s service. Instead, the networks and devices will work together to determine the best transport route for the data packets, he said.

“The system will choose that. We will make sure that’s seamless for the users,” Kalapala said. “Our goal is to give the best experience to our users, without them having to figure out how to get there.

“We will be building the system-selection capabilities within the OSS, working with our partners and the device makers. The best connectivity in a given area is what we’ll end up offering to our customers.”