Amazon wants to beam your smartphone signal straight from orbit 🛰️📱

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Amazon isn’t just building satellite broadband anymore — it wants your phone to talk to space directly. The company has filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a new constellation of 5,105 low-Earth-orbit satellites, this time dedicated to linking directly with mobile devices.

Cell towers optional📡

The pitch: unmodified compatible smartphones would be able to make calls, send texts, move data, and reach emergency services even where there’s no cell tower in range. The goal is connectivity in areas with poor or no mobile coverage — the kind of places terrestrial networks have never quite reached.

Rollout is planned to start in 2028, pending approval from US regulators. The new constellation would sit alongside Amazon’s existing Leo broadband network, already in deployment, as the company keeps expanding its orbital infrastructure.

The Globalstar bet 🤝

The plan leans on Amazon’s pending acquisition of Globalstar, announced this past April. If the deal closes, Amazon inherits Globalstar’s satellite infrastructure and spectrum licenses — the same spectrum Globalstar already licenses out for emergency satellite features on compatible Apple devices.

Amazon also plans to work with several mobile carriers to bring the Direct-to-Device service to market, and is separately asking the FCC for rights to spectrum currently assigned to Iridium’s satellite network outside the US — notably in Europe.

Nearly 8,300 satellites🌍

Amazon says the new direct-to-device offering will complement its existing Leo broadband service. The Leo constellation currently has about 396 satellites in orbit, and the company is authorized to deploy up to 3,232 for its broadband service.

Add the 5,105 D2D satellites, and Amazon is looking at roughly 8,300 satellites in the coming years — closing in on SpaceX, whose Starlink constellation already has close to 10,000 satellites deployed.

The rivalry between the two companies is intensifying on both fronts — satellite broadband and direct-to-phone connectivity. Rollout in Europe will depend on local regulatory approval; France is already cleared, with Amazon having secured the go-ahead from French authorities for its Leo broadband service.

Direct-to-Device, explained 📖

Direct-to-Device (D2D) lets a smartphone or other mobile device communicate directly with a satellite, without going through a cell tower. It’s designed to keep communications running in rural, remote, or disaster-affected areas.

Users would be able to make calls, send messages, use data, or reach emergency services even when no terrestrial network is available. The technology isn’t meant to replace mobile networks — just to extend their coverage.

What this could mean for Cameroon 🇨🇲

A service like this would matter most in places 4G doesn’t reach. In Cameroon, the government’s PATNUC program aims to connect 328 rural « white zones » by 2028, while internet penetration nationwide sat at around 45% in early 2026, according to DataReportal. For a farmer in a remote area, direct satellite access could eventually mean reaching mobile money or checking market prices without waiting for a nearby tower — assuming, that is, Amazon prices the service within reach, which it hasn’t yet said.

Could satellite-to-phone connectivity actually reshape mobile coverage, or is this still years from mattering in practice? We want to hear what you think.