Ukraine’s largest cell operator, Kyivstar, has accomplished its first take a look at of Starlink’s Direct to Cell satellite tv for pc expertise, enabling textual content messages to be despatched instantly from 4G smartphones with out further {hardware}.
The trial was introduced by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Kyivstar’s father or mother firm Veon in a press launch.
First Japanese Europe discipline take a look at
The Zhytomyr area hosted the pilot, the place Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov exchanged texts and even made a short video name through Starlink’s satellite tv for pc hyperlink in northern Ukraine’s Zhytomyr area.
Veon said that the take a look at marked Japanese Europe’s first discipline trial of the expertise, which is able to enable Kyivstar’s 23 million subscribers to remain linked in areas with out mobile protection. The service will debut in fall 2025 with free textual content messaging throughout its testing section.
“Our partnership with Starlink integrates terrestrial networks with satellite tv for pc platforms, making certain that nothing stands between our clients and connectivity – not energy outages, deserts, mountains, floods, earthquakes, and even landmines,” Veon CEO Kaan Terzioglu said.
Starlink in Ukraine
Kyivstar signed its Direct to Cell settlement with Starlink in December 2024, a couple of 12 months after a significant cyberattack disrupted service and brought about almost $100 million in damages, as famous in a report from the Kyiv Unbiased. Starlink expertise has been a pivotal a part of Ukraine’s protection in opposition to Russia within the ongoing battle.
“Regardless of all of the challenges of wartime, we proceed to develop modern options, as a result of dependable communication below any circumstances and in any location is one among our key priorities. Due to this fact, this Kyivstar challenge is an instance of efficient partnership between the state, enterprise, and expertise firms, which opens the best way to the way forward for communication with out borders,” Mykhailo Fedorov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, mentioned.
