Information
Over 1.2 million SMS messages have been delivered over satellite tv for pc because the service’s launch final yr
Veon-owned Kyivstar says it has registered greater than 3 million customers for Starlink’s Direct to Cell (D2C) low-earth-orbit satellite tv for pc service because the industrial launch on 24 November 2025.
The operator reported the service has delivered over 1.2 million SMS messages and that take-up has been strongest in Kyiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, and Dnipro. The service additionally gives “particularly very important” help to clients within the southern and japanese areas, the place terrestrial infrastructure is steadily broken or beneath restoration.
Protection explicitly excludes occupied areas, border areas, and lively fight zones, as a part of SpaceX’s efforts to keep up its standing as a civilian communications supplier.
The service is obtainable free to all Kyivstar 4G smartphone subscribers as a part of their common plans.
Kyivstar’s figures, launched in an organization assertion, imply roughly 19% of its 15.5 million 4G subscribers have registered for D2C.
“The speedy adoption of Starlink Direct to Cell companies by Kyivstar subscribers demonstrates the important significance of enhancing Ukraine’s resilience and our clients’ appreciation for the provision of satellite-based connectivity,” stated Kaan Terzioğlu, VEON Group CEO and Govt Chairman of Kyivstar. “We are going to proceed to cleared the path in offering revolutionary companies that Ukraine must construct its digital future and in assembly the ever-growing demand of our clients for digital connectivity.”
The preliminary industrial rollout of Starlink’s D2C service is proscribed to SMS, with voice and video companies to be added as a part of the constellation’s second technology of satellites, that are at present being launched.
The service is just accessible on Android units, with iPhone customers with iPhone 13 and later fashions should look forward to a forthcoming software program replace earlier than they’ll use the characteristic, Kyivstar stated.
Past Kyivstar, Veon can also be making ready to launch Starlink’s D2C know-how in different markets. Veon’s subsidiary Beeline Kazakhstan, for instance, has accomplished subject exams of the service forward of a deliberate industrial launch in that market throughout 2026, pending regulatory approval.
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