(Credit: Skylo)
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A company that has been partnering with Google, Samsung, and Verizon says it can now offer satellite-powered voice calls on smartphones.
On Wednesday, Skylo announced it had completed its first voice calls via the company’s "narrow-band non-terrestrial network," which includes satellites from Viasat and EchoStar. "Skylo’s innovation and breakthrough yield a capacity for tens of millions of calls monthly per region on its existing, commercially available satellite network service," it says.
Skylo is among several players racing to bring satellite-to-phone connectivity to the market, competing with SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile, and Apple partner Globalstar. Currently, such satellite-to-phone services, including those from Skylo, have been mainly limited to text messaging and locating sharing, giving consumers a way to remain connected in cellular dead zones. But in March, Skylo's CEO teased an expansion into satellite calling.
Pulling off satellite calls is tough: Signals from Earth’s orbit are usually far weaker than those from cell towers. At the same time, smartphones don’t come with large antennas or the transmit power to sustain a long-distance link.
However, Skylo says it enabled the calling capability through a "newly developed Skylo Voice Gateway, which utilizes advanced, AI-native voice codecs to ensure a high-quality communication experience by optimally balancing data consumption with call quality."
Skylo published a video about the technology, along with footage of the satellite call, which occurred last month. As you can see, the Skylo employee appears to point their phone toward the sky, ensuring the device can sustain the satellite signal.
Skylo also told PCMag the call was completed in Mountain View, California. "We have not yet announced specifics regarding our satellite partners in voice services," said Pete Saladino, the company's global head of marketing. But the company is working "on a series of demos to showcase the call quality," he noted.
The video adds that the Skylo Voice Gateway operates as a “smart bridge” between Earth-based telecommunication carriers and the company’s satellite network, which operates using a low bitrate.
“NTN Voice Calling is something no other network can deliver at global commercial scale,” Skylo cofounder Tarun Gupta claimed in the announcement.
Skylo's competitors, including SpaceX and AST SpaceMobile, are working on similar features, including voice and video calling. SpaceX's partner, T-Mobile, will also support satellite data to third-party apps, starting with the Pixel 10.
Skylo partner Google has also teased that Pixel 10 phones, which launch tomorrow, will support satellite calls on WhatsApp. So far, the company hasn’t provided details, but SpaceX has hinted that its cellular Starlink service is involved. The cellular Starlink service is currently available in the US through T-Mobile and has been expanding to other markets, including Canada.
Meanwhile, Skylo has been powering free satellite messaging to 911 emergency services on the Pixel 9, the upcoming Pixel 10, and the Pixel Watch 4. In addition, Verizon has tapped Skylo to offer satellite text messaging to friends and family as a free perk for phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, the Pixel 9 phones, and the Pixel 10 handsets.