Airtel Africa has launched what it describes as Africa’s first commercial direct-to-phone satellite service, activating it in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 14 August in partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Branded Starlink Mobile, the service lets Airtel DRC customers with a compatible LTE (long-term evolution) Android smartphone connect directly to Starlink’s low-Earth orbit satellites, which act as cell towers in space. No dish, antenna or specialised handset is needed, only a clear view of the sky.
Sunil Taldar, Airtel Africa’s chief executive, called the network the world’s largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, with 650 launched satellites.
At launch, the service offers:
- SMS (short message service) and light data applications, including WhatsApp messaging
- No voice support
- No browsing or streaming capability
- Planned Apple support
- An active data bundle or data roaming requirement
Taldar said in a LinkedIn post that combining Airtel’s terrestrial network with Starlink’s satellites extends “essential connectivity beyond the limits of conventional mobile infrastructure“. He cited logistics operators, humanitarian organisations, health workers, farmers and mining operations, along with emergencies and network outages.
Partnership and rollout
The switch-on follows the strategic partnership with SpaceX that Airtel Africa announced in December 2025, covering all 14 of the group’s African markets and 173.8 million customers, and successful tests in Kenya in March 2026. Expansion beyond the DRC is subject to country-specific regulatory approvals, Taldar said.
A rival direct-to-device plan from Axian Telecom and AST SpaceMobile, announced in March across 11 markets including the DRC, awaits approvals, and AST has pushed commercial launch to 2027.
South African operators
Airtel does not operate in South Africa, but both MTN and Vodacom have direct-to-cell programmes. Neither has launched commercially.
MTN South Africa claimed the first satellite direct-to-mobile call in the country in March 2025, placing a voice call and sending an SMS from Vryburg in North West over Lynk Global’s satellites, using unmodified handsets on its own licensed spectrum with trial approval from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa). That was a test only. MTN Group said in 2023 that it was trialling Starlink for enterprise customers in Rwanda and Nigeria and talking to AST SpaceMobile.
Vodacom is focused on AST SpaceMobile, backed by United Kingdom parent Vodafone since 2020, when the two agreed to beam 4G and 5G broadband from space across equatorial markets. Vodafone used AST’s satellites for the world’s first satellite video call from a standard smartphone on a Welsh mountainside in January 2025.
Vodacom’s own agreement with Starlink, signed in November 2025, is a different proposition: satellite backhaul to extend rural coverage, plus resale of Starlink kit to business customers. Direct-to-cell was not in the stated scope. Vodafone Group has separately firmed up a deal to use Amazon Leo to connect rural towers.
Regulatory and market context
Regulatory factors also play a role: Starlink has no South African licence, and SpaceX has not applied to Icasa, objecting to a requirement that licensees be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups. The Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, on which submissions close on 21 August, contains no ownership provision in the April version.
Having bought 65MHz (megahertz) of EchoStar spectrum for a combined US$19.6 billion, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said recently that the company intends to build out terrestrial infrastructure to make Starlink “a true mobile service”.
