The telecommunications operator Vivo, a subsidiary of Telefónica in Brazil, has presented the new service Vivo Satellite after closing an alliance with Starlink Mobile, thus becoming the first Brazilian operator to offer connectivity at any point in the national territory.
According to the company, thanks to this agreement, the constellation of satellites will function as an extension of Vivo's terrestrial mobile network, integrating with its current infrastructure.
Starlink Mobile is integrated into the direct satellite connectivity business unit for mobiles ('Direct-to-Device' or D2D) of Starlink, the network of satellites powered by the American aerospace company SpaceX, founded and led by Elon Musk.
With this technology, customers will be able to send and receive messages, check maps, and make calls through applications even in rural, remote, or hard-to-reach areas without terrestrial infrastructure, as long as they have direct visibility of the sky.
"With Vivo Satellite, Vivo customers will have signal wherever they are: on highways, rural areas, remote areas, or regions of difficult access that still do not have terrestrial infrastructure," said the company's Chief Operating Officer, Alex Salgado.
The service is already operational and initially reaches 50 million users, both individuals and corporate clients.
Compatible phones will automatically connect to the satellites when there is no signal from the traditional mobile network, with a free promotional phase of 12 months for individual customers and three months for businesses.
In this first deployment, subscribers will be able to use applications such as WhatsApp, RCS, SMS, iMessage, Google Messages, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and the Vivo app.
The operator plans to incorporate high-speed services as the next generation of satellites is put into orbit.
On the other hand, the Vice President of Sales at SpaceX, Stephanie Bednarek, emphasized that "offering resilient connectivity to as many people as possible is at the heart of everything they do" and highlighted that this collaboration will allow service to millions of people across Brazil.
These services complement the coverage of terrestrial mobile networks to expand outdoor connectivity, as well as enabling new uses in aviation and maritime transport, and ensuring service continuity in scenarios such as natural disasters.
Direct connectivity to mobile and potential of the Brazilian market
For mobile phone users, direct satellite connectivity to the device ('Direct-to-Device' or D2D) ensures having signal outdoors practically anywhere, even in isolated areas, so that satellite networks function as a complement to traditional mobile networks.
The large size of Brazil and the existence of extensive remote areas make the country an especially attractive environment for this type of solutions.
The agreement is comparable to that reached in the United Kingdom (O2 Satellite) to cover hard-to-reach regions, where the service will increase the operator's territorial coverage from 89% to 95% of the land surface, an increase equivalent to nearly two-thirds the size of Wales.
Mobile satellite services are ideal for open spaces and low population density, but they are not designed for interiors or for very congested suburban or urban areas.
LEO satellite networks offer a capacity much lower than that of terrestrial mobile networks, so providing high-quality mobile broadband in areas with a large volume of traffic is beyond their reach.
The company also maintains a collaboration with Sateliot to offer 5G satellite connectivity aimed at Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in remote locations, with a special focus on strategic sectors such as defense and security, within a strategy where the satellite acts as a complement to terrestrial networks driving innovation and competition in each market.