Skylo wants to make satellite voice calls commercially available

The US start-up Skylo has announced that it will make satellite voice calls directly to smartphones commercially available.

The US start-up Skylo wants to enable telephony via satellite with mobile phone partners.

(Image: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.com)

Aug 28, 2025 at 9:25 pm CEST

3 min. read

By

Andreas Floemer

Skylo has made its first voice calls over the company's "narrowband non-terrestrial network" (NTN). The communications provider has announced that it can deliver "a capacity of tens of millions of calls per month per region over the existing commercially available satellite network service".

Telephony via satellite

Skylo is one of several companies, including SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and Globalstar, vying to bring satellite-to-phone connectivity to the market. Currently, such satellite-to-phone services –, including Skylo's –, are primarily limited to text messaging, sending small amounts of data and location sharing, for example to call for help in emergencies without a cellular connection. The CEO of Skylo announced an expansion to satellite telephony back in March.

Read also

Damage unclear: "Space particle" damages Spanish military satellite

Fortress in space: Europe arms satellites against cyberattacks and geopolitics

Artistic representation of a Starlink satellite over Earth

For safety in orbit: SpaceX wants to lower Starlink satellites

Over 220 m² surface area: AST SpaceMobile's new satellite is even larger

Ariane 6 deploys Galileo satellites into orbit on its fifth flight

Satellite telephony is more difficult to implement than conventional telephony via traditional mobile phone networks, as signals from orbit are generally weaker than those from mobile phone masts. In addition, smartphones generally do not have strong antennas or the transmission power to maintain a satellite connection.

AI should help

Skylo claims to have solved the problem: The company claims to have enabled the calling feature through a "newly developed Skylo Voice Gateway" that uses "advanced, AI-native voice codecs to ensure a high-quality communication experience by optimally balancing data consumption and call quality". According to Skylo, a "more than tenfold improvement in data usage compared to existing mobile connections" has been achieved.

Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt

Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Inhalt geladen.

Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.

According to the company, the Skylo Voice Gateway translates the "physical layer of the satellite connection into the standard SIP/RTP protocols used by mobile network operators' core networks" so that it can be integrated into mobile network operators' networks and devices. The service paves the way for MNOs to provide voice connectivity to consumers and businesses over the satellite network.

Videos by heise

The company, together with its partners, has submitted a proposal for NTN-native voice connectivity to the 3GPP standards organization. This has been officially approved as 3GPP-Arbeitspunkt for Release 20.

Skylo is also working with mobile network operators and device and chip manufacturers to enable standards-based direct-to-device services using the Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) from satellite partners such as Viasat, the company says. Skylo's partners include Deutsche Telekom, chip developer Qualcomm, Samsung and Telefónica. Google also relies on the company's network for the SOS emergency call function on its Pixel devices.

While Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica are relying on Skylo, Vodafone is betting on AST Spacemobile. Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom's US subsidiary T-Mobile has teamed up with Musk's Starlink for satellite telephony.