O2’s Satellite mobile service extended to UK business customers

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that their recently launch consumer Direct-to-Device (D2D) based O2 Satellite service (here), which enables normal Smartphones to connect to their UK mobile network via Starlink’s cell-focused broadband satellites, is being made available to business customers via O2 Business.

Regular readers may recall that the consumer variant of O2 Satellite typically costs an extra £3 inc. VAT extra per month, while the O2 Business version will be made available to ‘Plus‘ customers for an extra £2.50 exc. VAT per month (30-day rolling bolt-on) and it will also come included by default on their O2 Business Ultimate plans. Otherwise the details remain very similar.

The service harnesses SpaceX’s global Starlink constellation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to support a satellite based 4G mobile data (broadband) connection via a small 5MHz (paired spectrum) part of the 1800MHz (B3) band, which enables connectivity in even some of the remotest parts of the UK. In addition, users also benefit from greater general resilience, at least when outside a building.

O2 Satellite, once applied, effectively boosted O2’s UK landmass mobile coverage from 89% to 95%. The service is designed to complement O2’s existing mobile network, and customers will connect automatically when traditional cellular coverage is unavailable.

However, the service does have some initial limitations and won’t work everywhere. For example, it will initially only being able to support text messaging and limited data connectivity across specific apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Google Maps and more. But all of this should improve with time. Standard voice calls, including calls to emergency services, are also not currently supported over O2 Satellite for Business.

Jo Bertram, CEO of O2 Business, said:

“Businesses increasingly rely on always-on connectivity, but work doesn’t stop where mobile coverage ends. That’s why we’re bringing direct-to-device satellite connectivity to our business customers — the first UK business mobile network to do so. O2 Satellite extends connectivity beyond the reach of traditional mobile networks, helping organisations stay connected in more places through the smartphones they already use every day. It’s another example of how we’re using technology to breathe simplicity into the way business works.”

The news of this launch has long been expected, particularly after O2 provided firefighters in Derbyshire (England) with 100 satellite-supporting Smartphones as part of a summer trial (here). But a quick check of the relevant O2 Business page this morning still lists O2 Satellite as “coming soon” and instead directs interested parties to “register their interest“, so at this moment it doesn’t yet appear to be fully live.

The next generation of DtD / DtC satellites from Starlink are expected to combine a phased-array antenna five times larger than the first gen, offering four times more bandwidth per beam, thousands of spatial beams, new S-band spectrum, MIMO and 5G technology. Starlink has previously said that these will start to reach orbit during 2027 and should be ready to go live by the end of next year (here), offering mobile broadband speeds of around 150Mbps per user.