With the Starlink partnership, Ukraine, which is in the so-called “White spots network” areas, will be able to access the internet.
Ukraine will be the first country in Europe to offer Starlink mobile services, following Kyivstar’s launch of messaging by the end of the year and mobile satellite broadband by mid-2026.
Field tests have started under an agreement with SpaceX’s commercial broadband constellation, which will expire in 2024 to allow Elon Musk’s company to deliver direct-to-cell services in the war-torn country.
Mobile phones with 4G or Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks were able to send and receive text messages during the test by connecting directly to the satellite in orbit.
With the Starlink partnership, Ukraine which is in so-called “White spots network” areas. It means it is in a remote and mountainous region with no cell coverage, but it will be able to access the internet.
Direct-to-cell system sends phone signals from space to smartphones by connecting a satellite with modems, similar to a mobile tower.
Oleksandr Komarov, CEO of Kyivstar, stated that the first stage is over-the-top (OTT) messaging, meaning that by the end of the year, messaging through WhatsApp and Signal will be operational.
He predicts that they will be able to offer mobile satellite broadband data and voice by the first half of 2026.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
In June, US carrier T-Mobile said that it will introduce a data service on its satellite-to-cell network, powered by Starlink, at the beginning of October.
Komarov was speaking ahead of the Ukraine recovery conference in Italy, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will also attend.
At the conference, the fourth year since the war began in February 2022, he stated that his primary goals were to support the Ukrainian government and establish new business ties, some with Italian companies eager to expand in Ukraine.
Kyivstar, owned by telecom company VEON, also aims to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the United States. According to Komarov, the project is moving forward. He expects that it will be launched by the third quarter of 2025.
He claims that it is the first time there is a direct listing of a Ukrainian company on the American stock exchange, especially during the conflict.
Komarov claimed that despite Russia’s escalating attacks in recent weeks, Ukrainian communications infrastructure was holding up quite well.
Last year, one of its attacks on transmission lines and power systems took over half of Ukraine’s available generation capacity, causing daily blackouts in major cities.
He added that, compared to 2022, they are far more resilient as they fixed their mobile services, which can operate for up to ten hours during the blackouts, even during national ones.
European authorities have been testing many companies to see if they can take the place of Musk’s Starlink in Ukraine.
According to Euronews Next, satellite operator Eutelsat is trying to expand its satellite capacity in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the company stated that the Franco-British company has more than 630 satellites in low-Earth orbit across the globe that provide the same coverage and response time as Starlink.
Ukraine already uses Eutelsat to support institutional and governmental communications. Europe is also considering the IRIS2 project, a network of 290 satellites in low-and medium-Earth orbit that might provide people with ultra-fast transmission services.
Christophe Grudler, the project’s rapporteur at the European Parliament, stated that IRIS2 should start by 2028, two years before its intended launch date of 2030.
But it is not immediately clear whether Starlink’s growth might impact those plans. Euronews Next contacted Eutelsat and the group behind IRIS2, but they did not respond right away.
