The D2D industry, still in its infancy, is showing steady progress.

Just a few years ago, the idea that a smartphone could connect to a satellite seemed more science fiction than technological possibility. But now, such connections are not only possible, they’re popping up in a growing number of locations around the world.

This development has significant implications for cellular network providers, telecom regulators, cell tower operators and equipment vendors – not to mention mobile users themselves. After all, D2D technology ultimately promises to eliminate outdoor cellular dead zones globally.

However, D2D technology is still maturing. Most such connections can only transmit a few bytes of data. And the service is commercially available in just a handful of countries. Ookla® data helps to shine a light on this emerging market and its growth potential.

Key takeaways:

• The number of global D2D connections recorded by Ookla increased roughly 24.5% between July 2025 and March 2026. This growth coincides with the launch of Starlink Mobile’s D2D services in a number of countries, including Chile, Ukraine, Peru, and the U.K. However, growth in those countries was offset by a decline in the number of connections in the U.S. and Canada in recent months. This may correspond to moves by T-Mobile (in the U.S.) and Rogers (in Canada) to begin charging some customers for D2D services, as well as other factors such as seasonal usage trends
• The U.S. leads the world in D2D connections, accounting for 45.9% of all global D2D connections in March 2026. Other countries showing noteworthy numbers of D2D connections in March 2026 included Australia (18.1% of global D2D samples), Chile (10%) and Canada (9.8%) – all countries with significant chunks of rural territory. Starlink accounted for the vast majority of these D2D samples, though Skylo and Lynk Global also generated some samples globally.
• A very small percentage of mobile users are connecting to D2D satellites in each of these countries. For example, during March 2026, 0.46% of Speedtest® users in the U.S. recorded a connection to a D2D satellite. In Chile, that figure was 1.26% (the highest). In Canada, it was 0.70%. In Japan, it was 0.11% (the lowest). This is noteworthy because it helps to define the scale and scope of the overall D2D marketplace.
• RootMetrics® conducted drive testing on Starlink’s D2D service for T-Mobile in rural New York state in the second half of 2025. The tests involved sending and receiving texts on phones that were in a moving car – essentially putting extra stress on a service that’s intended to be used outdoors, in a stationary situation, with a clear view of the sky. Nonetheless, the tests showed a 60% success rate. The average amount of time it took to successfully send and then receive a text (across 143 successful tests) was 1 minute, 17 seconds.
• In the U.S., most D2D signal strength measurements (using RSRP, or Reference Signal Received Power) fell between -108 and -126 dBm. That’s outside the -80 to -120 dBm range of traditional, terrestrial cellular network measurements. This is likely due to the remote nature of these D2D connections, which are generally unaffected by interference from other users. They’re often in outdoor environments that aren’t cluttered with lots of other cellular signals, or with the traffic of lots of other users.

Turning fiction into reality

D2D technology connects satellites directly to smartphones. This is an impressive technological feat, considering those satellites are hundreds of miles above the Earth, and often traveling thousands of miles an hour. Traditional cell towers, meanwhile, are usually just a few miles away from mobile users.

Apple, via Globalstar’s satellites and spectrum holdings, pioneered the D2D market. Every iPhone since the iPhone 14, introduced in 2022, can send and receive text messages through these satellites.

But Apple isn’t alone.

SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile, Skylo, and Lynk Global have all announced commercial D2D services in select countries around the world. Viasat and AST SpaceMobile are among the companies that have announced plans to launch D2D offerings in the future. And just this month, Amazon announced plans to acquire Globalstar in order to provide D2D services to mobile network operators globally as part of its Amazon Leo satellite internet venture.

Most such services today support text messaging and some light data services, but D2D network performance ought to improve as vendors deploy additional satellites and spectrum.

As with most new technologies, there are a variety of technological designs and commercial implementations in the D2D marketplace. Apple, for example, is relying on Globalstar’s satellites, spectrum holdings and regulatory approvals to offer messaging via satellite. Meanwhile, both Starlink and Lynk are currently using spectrum from their mobile operator partners for D2D (and thereby supporting D2D connections across most newer smartphones). Both companies are also moving to inject their own spectrum holdings into their D2D efforts. And Skylo is running its services over spectrum and satellites owned by its satellite operator partners.

Partly as a result, the technological standards for these types of services are still evolving. The 3GPP – the organization charged with setting most cellular standards – is in the process of fully integrating D2D technology into future 5G and 6G standards. And telecom regulators around the world are working to address the many issues surrounding emerging D2D services, from interference concerns to the effect D2D satellites might have on astronomy.

Ookla data helps to shine a light on progress in the D2D marketplace via data derived from Android smartphones that register with satellites from Starlink, Skylo, and Lynk. Here are the countries where Ookla has recorded such connections between July 2025 and March 2026:

D2D connections grow – but remain a small part of a big industry

Overall, the total number of D2D samples recorded globally by Ookla increased 24.5% between July 2025 and March 2026:

Ookla recorded D2D connections in Ukraine (2.52% of all samples in March 2026) due to Kyivstar’s November launch with Starlink there. However, those results are not included in any mapping information due to sensitivities around connectivity and the ongoing conflict in the country.

From July 2025 to March 2026, the U.S. accounted for the plurality of D2D samples. But other countries have begun to show growth in recent months.

Broadly, these results track with the testing and launch of Starlink’s D2D services across a growing number of countries. And Starlink is promising more D2D growth in the months ahead: According to the company’s site, Starlink plans to launch D2D services in large parts of Africa as well as in countries ranging from Spain to Kazakhstan to Mongolia to Madagascar to Mexico.

Regardless, D2D in general is still just a tiny part of the overall, global cellular industry. The below results, broken out by country, show the percent of users who showed at least one D2D connection, on a monthly basis. This data is based on Speedtest users with Android smartphones that support D2D connections from Starlink, Skylo, or Lynk.

Broadly, these results are not necessarily a surprise. For example, GSMA Intelligence recently noted that terrestrial networks already cover 96% of the global population, and that D2D connections typically only work outside rather than indoors (where most smartphone usage occurs). “In practice, the majority of mobile users will not actively need D2D on a regular basis,” the firm wrote.

Further, the percentage of unique monthly D2D users showed a slight decline in recent months in the U.S. and Canada. This may be due to a variety of factors including season usage trends (people tend to travel less during the winter). Further, T-Mobile and Rogers (Starlink’s partners in the U.S. and Canada, respectively) began charging some customers for Starlink-powered D2D services after the end of an initial free trial period. Both operators now offer the service for no additional cost to customers who subscribe to their more expensive service plans, but charge roughly $10 per month to customers on less expensive plans. They also offer the service to customers from other carriers, for a fee.

In Ukraine, Kyivstar does not charge extra for Starlink Mobile. Neither does KDDI in Japan. In Peru, Entel offers 200 text messages through Starlink Mobile across a number of its service plans for no extra cost. In the U.K., Telefonica’s O2 is offering Starlink Mobile at no extra cost on its more expensive “Ultimate” plan, and for around $4 per month to other customers. In the U.S., Verizon is not charging extra for Skylo’s D2D text messaging services.

Tracking the growth of a new market

Like most telecom operators, D2D providers like Starlink and Skylo use Mobile Country Codes (MCC) and Mobile Network Codes (MNC) as unique numerical identifiers for their services. The MCC identifies the country (530 for New Zealand, for example), while the MNC identifies the specific carrier within that country. The International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, is responsible for the global standardization of these identification codes.

These codes create a starting point for tracking the rollout of D2D services because Android phones record which MCCs and MNCs they access. However, additional filters must be applied to these MCC and MNC registrations in order to remove devices that may have only briefly connected to a D2D network operator while in the process of switching from a Wi-Fi network to a cellular network, for example.

Further, the D2D market is in a state of flux. For example, AST SpaceMobile has promised to join the industry via the launch of 45-60 satellites by the end of 2026. Most of those satellites will offer data speeds of up to 120 Mbps. It’s not yet clear how those capabilities will shape customers’ actual experiences, but AST SpaceMobile partners like AT&T are promising “a full suite of broadband connectivity: voice, data, and text.”

Similarly, Amazon Leo is promising to maintain Globalstar’s constellation for Apple while deploying its own D2D satellite constellation by 2028. “The Leo D2D system will offer substantially higher spectrum use and efficiency than legacy direct-to-cell systems, which translates into faster speeds and better performance for customers,” according to the company.

And Lynk, backed by satellite operator SES, announced a merger with Omnispace in late 2025 to combine its “cell-tower-in-space” technology with Omnispace’s extensive satellite spectrum holdings.

SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile, meanwhile, recently announced plans to launch a second generation of D2D satellites, a constellation that will be roughly double the size of its current D2D constellation. Those new V2 D2D satellites will support the spectrum SpaceX purchased from EchoStar, alongside improved antennas and other advancements that Starlink said will “enable full 5G cellular connectivity with a comparable experience to current terrestrial service.” However, the launch of Starlink’s V2 D2D satellite constellation is contingent on SpaceX’s bigger Starship rocket, which remains in testing. 

That said, a major driver in the D2D industry broadly is the falling cost of satellite launches, thanks in large part to SpaceX’s existing Falcon 9 rocket. One estimate indicates that the price of putting 1 kilogram into orbit has recently tumbled from $10,000 to around $3,300.

The real-world use cases of D2D

The takeaways in any analysis of the global D2D marketplace are distinctly local in nature, as visible in the early results from T-Mobile’s deployment of Starlink’s D2D service in the U.S.

For example, the gradual rollout of D2D is clearly visible in Ookla data for Peru, where Starlink Mobile launched D2D services with Entel in December:

This helps to show the reach of D2D services, particularly in light of the fact that most cellular networks only cover populated areas and not the vast tracks of wilderness common across the globe (and in Eastern Peru).

Another view of Starlink’s D2D service comes from Ookla’s RootMetrics®, which conducts rigorous drive tests of cellular networks in the U.S. and globally. RootMetrics’s drive testing data can often provide a more nuanced look at the performance of mobile networks when compared with crowdsourced data from Speedtest.

Using flagship Android smartphones, RootMetrics’ engineers in the U.S. conducted drive tests in northern New York state in the second half of 2025, testing that included efforts to send text messages through T-Mobile’s Starlink-powered D2D connections in locations where T-Mobile’s cellular service wasn’t available. The drive traveled in and out of T-Mobile’s coverage area in the region.

In all, RootMetrics’ kit tried 238 times to send text messages through Starlink’s D2D network (when connected to Starlink’s MNC) during this drive test. The phones successfully sent and received texts 143 times, or roughly 60% of the time.

The longest amount of time it took for the RootMetrics’ kit to successfully send and receive a D2D text was 5 minutes. The shortest amount of time was 1 second. The average amount of time it took to successfully send and then receive a text (across the 143 successfully completed tests) was 1 minute, 17 seconds.

Again, this test was conducted while RootMetrics’ engineers were driving, so the sending and receiving phones were in a moving car and were not stationary. Most D2D services are intended to be used outdoors, in a stationary situation, with a clear view of the sky.

But, taking a step back, it’s also important here to note that many of these New York locations do not have any kind of internet connectivity. Thus, D2D connections can be critical in the event of a flat tire, broken ankle, or something worse.

Finally, text messaging represents the start of the D2D industry, but certainly not the end. Already Starlink has opened its D2D service to light data connections from a handful of applications including X, WhatsApp, onX, and Google Maps. And Starlink, AST SpaceMobile, Amazon Leo, and others have promised speedier D2D data connections in the future.

A closer look at D2D network conditions

D2D connections stand as a remarkable technical achievement, considering satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) are roughly 60 times further away from users’ phones than a traditional, terrestrial cell tower that’s just a few miles away.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the “link budget” for a D2D connection is much different from a standard, terrestrial one.

A cellular “link budget” is the accounting of all the power gains and losses that a signal experiences in and between a transmitter (the cell tower) and a receiver (the phone). A link budget can be measured in a wide variety of ways, but for this exercise we’ll look at two basic measurements:

• RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power): This measures the strength of a signal, in dBm (decibel-milliwatts). The closer the number is to zero, the stronger the signal. For standard terrestrial cellular networks, -80 dBm is very strong and -120 dBm is very weak.
• RSSNR (Reference Signal-to-Noise Ratio): This measures the quality of a signal, in dB (decibel). It tells you how much the signal “stands out” from any background noise. Higher numbers mean a cleaner, faster connection. For terrestrial cellular networks, typical measurements range between -10dB on the lower end and +19 dB on the higher end.

Here is how Ookla’s D2D network measurements in the U.S. compare against typical terrestrial, cellular network measurements. These terrestrial measurements were taken on T-Mobile’s network in Los Angeles, a city with generally excellent cellular coverage. That’s due to a variety of factors including an abundance of cell towers, relatively flat topography and weather that’s friendly to a cellular signal (meaning, not a lot of rain).

Most U.S. D2D RSRP measurements fall in between -108 and -126 dBm. How can a seemingly weak −120 dBm signal sustain a functional D2D connection? It’s likely due to the remote nature of these connections. They’re often in outdoor environments that aren’t cluttered with lots of other cellular signals, or with the traffic of lots of other users.

Basically, these D2D signals represent “heroic” connections: They’re right on the edge of what physics allows. This is also why D2D connections today generally only support very slow-speed data services like text messaging. There’s no room in the “link budget” for anything heavier.

But D2D vendors plan to improve this situation. With more spectrum and more advanced satellites – carrying more powerful antennas that can tighten beams around smaller groups of users – they hope to eke out even better network performance from space.

What will a D2D future mean?

According to a February report from the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), D2D services have been launched in 15 countries. And there are 61 countries and territories that are planning, evaluating, testing, or have already launched satellite-to-smartphone partnerships. Starlink leads in this respect with 59 partnerships, according to the GSA count, followed by AST SpaceMobile with 28 partnerships.

The GSA’s report doesn’t cover China. There, according to ABI, China Unicom and China Telecom are already licensed to offer D2D services via the state-owned Tiantong GEO satellite system. Meanwhile, China Mobile uses the BeiDou navigation satellite system, and plans to integrate with emerging satellite constellations to further expand its D2D capabilities. To scale these capabilities beyond emergency voice and text to full mobile broadband, all three state-backed telcos are coordinating with the government to integrate with China’s rapidly deploying LEO mega-constellations, most notably Project Guowang and G60 Qianfan (Spacesail).

The reach of D2D technology has significant implications for cellular network operators, particularly those looking to understand the movement of customers who leave their operator’s network footprint. For example, a large number of customers traveling into rural locations could spur a network operator to consider the installation of a cell tower to better cover those customers.

On the other hand, the widespread availability of satellite-powered “broadband connectivity,” as AT&T has promised, could ease demand for additional cell towers in rural areas. This could affect the long-term business for cell tower operators. Already Starlink is promising that its V2 constellation for D2D services will allow mobile network operators to “invest less in terrestrial networks while unlocking seamless service in remote areas.” The real calculation might ultimately be economic: Is it less expensive to construct a cell tower or to rely on a D2D provider to cover rural, outdoor areas?

As for regulators, the broad adoption of D2D services could affect a variety of policies, including financial incentives for telecom services in rural areas. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. is still evaluating the 5G Fund for Rural America, an initiative that aims to distribute up to $9 billion over the next decade to bring high-speed 5G to rural areas. Should D2D services factor into that spending?

Regardless, D2D likely won’t impact indoor coverage efforts, considering satellite-borne signals generally can’t penetrate buildings and other structures. This is important considering an estimated 80% of mobile data is consumed indoors.

For mobile users – those in outdoor, rural areas – such details may not matter. The growing availability of D2D could lead to the elimination of outdoor cellular dead zones, ensuring smartphone connectivity virtually anywhere on the globe.