Satellite internet & direct-to-cell: where the field actually stands
Starlink operates about 8,000 satellites serving several million subscribers, with roughly 600 capable of connecting ordinary phones. In August 2026 AST SpaceMobile switched on the first commercial direct-to-cell service outside the US, with Rakuten in Japan.
Satellite internet and direct-to-cell carry four metrics and 7 milestones here. It is the clearest downstream beneficiary of cheap reusable launch on this tracker, and the field where one operator's lead is most lopsided.
Starlink operates about 8,000 working satellites, against OneWeb's roughly 650 under Eutelsat, Amazon's Kuiper at about 150 and ramping, and AST SpaceMobile's 5 BlueBirds. The 2019 baseline was 120 Starlink satellites, from the first operational batch of 60 launched in May 2019 — the beginning of the first true low-earth-orbit broadband mega-constellation. Subscribers stand at about 7 million for Starlink, a revenue base that funds the constellation and makes it self-sustaining at a scale no rival approaches.
Direct-to-cell is the new frontier, and it is measured separately because it is a different capability: connecting ordinary, unmodified phones with no tower and no added hardware. The baseline is zero — nothing before 2024. SpaceX now flies about 600 direct-to-cell-capable Starlink v2 minis; AST SpaceMobile flies 5 dedicated BlueBird satellites, which are far fewer but much larger, the largest commercial arrays ever flown and purpose-built for broadband straight to phones. The two companies are making opposite bets: many small multi-purpose satellites versus few large dedicated ones.
The sequence is short and recent. SpaceX and T-Mobile sent the first direct-to-cell text messages to ordinary phones from orbit in January 2024. AST orbited its first commercial BlueBirds in September 2024. Then in August 2026 AST notified the FCC it had begun direct-to-cell operations in Japan with Rakuten Mobile — its first commercial service activation outside the United States, with every Japanese authorization in hand including a user-equipment licence, after Japan cleared low-earth-orbit satellites in June to link standard phones over the 700 MHz band.
That Japanese activation is the milestone worth watching, because it moves direct-to-cell from a US regulatory story into an international one. Direct-to-cell voice and data rollout beyond text, via carrier partners, remains in progress — early service, not yet continuous or global.
One gap in the tracker's own data is worth stating: the research-output metric for this field currently carries no verified measurement, so the page shows it awaiting data rather than filling it with an estimate.
The locked milestone is continuous global direct-to-cell — any ordinary phone connected anywhere on Earth, straight to orbit, without interruption — targeted toward 2028. What exists today is intermittent coverage through carrier partnerships in specific countries. The distance between those two descriptions is the whole remaining problem.