Airtel Uganda Joins a Growing Global Wave as It Begins Testing Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell Service
Airtel Uganda has kicked off trials of Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell satellite technology, positioning the Ugandan subsidiary at the front of what has quickly become one of the most consequential trends reshaping the global telecom industry.
The move follows clearance from two separate arms of government. The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) granted regulatory approval roughly two weeks before the trials began, and the Government of Uganda subsequently cleared Starlink to operate in the country last week. With both hurdles cleared, Airtel Uganda can now run the tests, with results expected to be made available to the public in the coming months if the trials conclude successfully.
What the Technology Actually Does
Direct-to-Cell, also referred to as Direct-to-Device or Supplemental Coverage from Space, works by turning satellites into orbiting cell towers. Standard LTE smartphones, with no hardware modifications whatsoever, can connect directly to the satellites for text messaging, voice calls, and eventually mobile data. No special equipment, no new SIM card. The phone you already have is the terminal.
SpaceX currently operates more than 650 satellites specifically built for the Direct-to-Cell function. Those satellites are designed to integrate with partner telecom networks the same way a roaming partner would, meaning the service appears to subscribers as a seamless extension of their existing mobile plan rather than an entirely separate product.
What Airtel Uganda Is Saying
Airtel Uganda’s CEO and Managing Director, Mr Soumendra Sahu, described the start of testing as the beginning of a long-awaited journey.
“Today, we are pleased to begin our journey of exploring our long-awaited partnership with Starlink. This marks the start of testing a highly advanced technology that enhances smartphone network connectivity through Direct-to-Cell satellite services,” Mr Sahu said.
He pointed specifically to geographies like the Buvuma Islands and Murchison Falls National Park as examples of the areas the technology is designed to serve, places where building and maintaining conventional cell tower infrastructure is economically or logistically impractical.
“The technology automatically links smartphones to satellites, improving access to calls, text messaging and selected data services,” he added. “Through Direct-to-Cell services, underserved communities across Uganda will enjoy seamless connectivity, enabling them to stay connected with loved ones and access opportunities for business and growth.”
Part of a Much Bigger African Push
The Uganda trial does not exist in isolation. It is one piece of a continent-wide rollout strategy that Airtel Africa and SpaceX formalised in December 2025, when the two companies signed a partnership to introduce Starlink Direct-to-Cell across all 14 of Airtel Africa’s markets, covering a combined subscriber base of more than 174 million customers. The commercial service is expected to launch across those markets in 2026, beginning with text messaging and data for select applications.
Airtel is not alone in making this move. Africa’s telecom landscape has seen a striking shift in how established operators are positioning themselves relative to Starlink. Rather than treating the satellite provider as an existential threat, which was the dominant narrative as recently as 2023, major African telcos are increasingly folding satellite connectivity into their own infrastructure strategies.
Vodacom Group struck its own deal with Starlink, emphasising satellite backhaul for enterprise customers across its 25-country footprint. The arrangement also enables Vodacom to resell Starlink equipment and services to business customers. That partnership navigates a specific regulatory complication: Starlink cannot obtain a direct operating licence in South Africa due to local ownership rules requiring 30% equity by historically disadvantaged groups, making Vodacom an effective pathway into the market.
Kenya’s Safaricom has taken a different route, partnering with AST SpaceMobile for direct-to-cell testing. MTN Group, the continent’s largest mobile operator, has been exploring satellite services with multiple providers. This broader pattern shows the telltale signs of a maturation of Starlink’s African strategy, from market entrant to infrastructure layer.
A Global Trend That Has Been Building for Years
Zoom out further, and the Airtel Uganda trial is the latest chapter in a rapidly unfolding global story. Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell programme commercially launched its messaging service in early 2025, having spent years in regulatory processes and beta testing. In January 2024, SpaceX sent its first successful direct-to-cell text messages using T-Mobile’s spectrum in the United States, proving the technology worked at scale before any commercial agreement was live.
T-Mobile officially launched what it branded T-Satellite in July 2025, making it the first commercially available Direct-to-Cell service in the world. The beta phase alone attracted nearly 1.8 million sign-ups before the full launch. By 2026, T-Satellite coverage extends across the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Canada, and New Zealand.
The deals have since cascaded globally. In November 2025, Starlink signed what was described as its largest Direct-to-Cell agreement to date, a partnership with Veon covering over 150 million potential customers across operators, including Kyivstar in Ukraine and Beeline in Kazakhstan. Kyivstar launched the service commercially in late 2025; Beeline is expected to follow in 2026. Other operator partnerships are live or in progress in Australia (Optus and Telstra), Canada (Rogers), Switzerland (Salt), Japan (KDDI), Chile and Peru (Entel), and New Zealand (One NZ). In early 2026, Spanish operator MasOrange added to the list.
The pace of deal-making reflects a structural shift in how the satellite-to-mobile service is being positioned. Starlink now describes its Direct-to-Cell constellation as the world’s largest 4G coverage provider. The service launched with text messaging, expanded to data and IoT connectivity in 2025, and has voice calling on its near-term roadmap. SpaceX’s next-generation Direct-to-Cell satellites are designed to deliver data speeds roughly 20 times faster than the current generation.
The Caveats Worth Knowing
The technology is genuinely promising, but its real-world impact will depend on factors that go beyond the satellite constellation itself. Satellite capacity is finite, and service quality in any given area is a function of both what’s overhead and what ground infrastructure supports it. Regulatory approval processes vary significantly by country. SpaceX had secured licences in only 9 of Airtel Africa’s 14 markets as of May 2025, with the remaining countries still working through their processes.
Pricing will also shape how transformative this is for digital inclusion. Starlink’s standalone consumer offerings remain expensive relative to average incomes across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, with hardware costs exceeding USD 300 and monthly subscriptions around USD 50 in markets where the service is available. The telco partnership model changes that calculus somewhat, since the service would be offered as an add-on to existing Airtel plans rather than a standalone product, but exact pricing for African markets has not yet been announced.
What is clear is that Airtel Uganda’s trial is not a standalone experiment. It is one node in a global infrastructure shift, and Uganda, with its islands, national parks, and vast rural interior, is precisely the kind of market the technology was designed for.