Verizon has teamed up with another satellite operator to offer US customers a commercial direct-to-device messaging service for when a terrestrial cell network is not available, starting this fall.

The telecoms giant says that US customers with compatible smartphones will have access to emergency messaging and location sharing, even when out of range of a cell tower, and from early next year it will offer the ability to text anywhere via a satellite connection, again with compatible devices.

Verizon told The Register that there are no additional costs planned for this service, and any customer with a capable device can take advantage of it, irrespective of price plan.

It will be available on the Pixel 9 family of devices out of the box, with the Galaxy S25 to follow, a Verizon spokesperson told us. "Next year we will add text anywhere functionality to the emergency text and location services available this year," they added.

This sounds somewhat similar to the Emergency SOS feature introduced by Apple with the iPhone 14 two years ago, which also enabled users to contact emergency services via a satellite link. Verizon says its service will complement Apple's iOS 18 satellite features, so customers using different devices will also have the ability to text anywhere.

As partner for this service, Verizon has picked Skylo, a company that styles itself as a pioneer in Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) communications for smartphones and other devices.

Skylo doesn't operate satellites itself, but leases spectrum from other providers such as VIASAT, EchoStar, Strigo, and Ligado Networks, making it a kind of space-going virtual network operator (VNO).

This isn't the first satellite partnership for Verizon. America's largest mobile telco announced earlier this year that it had signed up with AST SpaceMobile, joining rival operator AT&T.

However, AST so far has only a single test satellite in orbit - BlueWalker 3 - and the BlueBird units it needs to operate a commercial service have yet to be placed aloft. These are now at Cape Canaveral awaiting a rocket launch in the first half of September.

While AST looks set to enable voice and data services via standard smartphones, it seems Verizon couldn't wait for the orbital operator to get its act together.

"We are very excited not only to work with AST, but to be a long-term investor in the success of their satellite services," Verizon's spokesperson told us. "Until their satellite array is launched and functional, we wanted to make sure all of our customers with capable devices have the same basic satellite messaging connectivity."

No date has been offered for when the service via AST may become available, but another telco partner, Japan's Rakuten Mobile, previously said it intended its satellite-based mobile offering to start from 2026.

"We do have a technical path to data and voice messaging with AST," Verizon said. "That deployment will enable SMS-based messaging, with the potential to expand to voice and lightweight data. We do not have details to share on the commercialization of that service today."

Skylo, Verizon's new orbital buddy, previously had an arrangement with Brit smartphone maker Bullitt for an emergency satellite messaging service to complement its ruggedized handsets, announced at CES in January 2023. The company folded earlier this year. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/29/verizon_skylo_satellite_messaging/