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Starlink, slated for its launch in India by January 2025, is strengthening its global Internet services by deploying new ‘Direct to Cell’ satellites into space. The technology aims to bypass traditional cellular towers and enable users to make calls and use Internet services even in remote areas where cellular towers are unavailable by offering direct connections through satellites deployed in Earth’s orbit.

Overview: Direct-to-Cell Capabilities

On December 8, 2024, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket and deployed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, among which 13 satellites have ‘Direct to Cell’ capabilities. Unlike Starlink’s Internet services, which require antennas to connect satellites and send signals to ground stations and Internet grids, the ‘Direct-to-Cell’ satellites equipped with antennas and advanced modems, allow users to connect directly to smartphones without needing to purchase external devices.


Technical Innovations Starlink Implemented for Its Direct-to-Cell Service

Onboard LTE Modems:

The technology leverages existing LTE technology for tasks such as making calls, sending messages, and using Internet facilities, thus providing seamless connectivity to remote areas where conventional mobile networks are unavailable.

These ‘Direct to Cell’ satellites have an advanced eNodeB modem that acts like a cellphone tower in space, allowing seamless connections between smartphones and satellites and ensuring compatibility with unmodified cell phones.

Custom Silicon Chips:

Specialized chips are designed to optimize satellite-to-cellphone communication. The aim is to reduce power consumption and costs for the satellite system and enable efficient operation.

Advanced Phased Array Antennas:

The antennas are highly sensitive radio receivers equipped with high-powered transmitters. These antennas are capable of maintaining robust communication links with standard cell phones.

Network Architecture and Software Optimization:

Starlink optimized critical factors, such as satellite altitude, beam size and placement, elevation angles, and satellite density, to maintain reliable LTE coverage. The algorithms manage LTE timing adjustments and Doppler shift management for frequency changes due to high-speed satellite motion. They also ensure smooth communication despite inherent delays in satellite systems.

Seamless Handoff Technology:

Those Satellites are designed to ensure imperceptible transitions as they move across the sky or pass the connection to ground networks.

Future Plans:

In early January 2024, Starlink launched its first six Starlink satellites with ‘Direct to Cell’ capabilities. Initially starting with text messages, the company is set to unveil other features such as voice, data, and Internet of Things services in 2025 on LTE phones and devices. With its rapid deployment of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, Starlink’s extensive network ensures widespread coverage and redundancy, minimizing the risk of service disruptions.

Direct-to-cell satellites are further making connectivity seamless, even in remote or underserved areas where traditional cellular networks are unavailable, by directly connecting users to the satellites. In the meantime, Starlink is actively partnering with telecom operators across the globe. These partnerships are crucial for accessing the LTE spectrum, integrating with existing mobile networks, and offering services directly to those operators’ existing customers. Through its partnerships with various telecom providers, Starlink aims to offer global roaming capabilities to users while they are traveling in different countries where Starlink has established partnerships with local operators. Starlinks’s standard Satellite internet plans offers speeds between 50 Mbps and 150 Mbps and the upload speed ranges from 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps. Though the priority plan is to reach speeds up to 220 Mbps Starlink aims to deliver speeds exceeding 2 Gbps with next-generation satellites.

Direct-to-cell connectivity might have different speed limitations as compared to Starlink’s standard satellite internet service. as other factors like the use of LTE technology, signal strength from space, and potential network congestion could influence internet speed.