Charter and Comcast said today that they now offer emergency satellite-to-cellphone service for certain cellphones. In addition, the cable companies expect to offer SMS text messaging to the same devices in “the coming weeks.”
The emergency services will be available at no charge for customers who have Samsung Galaxy S25 or Google Pixel 9 phones. A Comcast spokesperson said the text messaging offering is expected to be free, while a Charter spokesperson declined to provide guidance about that at this time.
The Charter and Comcast satellite-to-cellphone news follows similar news from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, all of whom have announced their own offerings.
AT&T and Verizon have satellite-to-cellphone deals with satellite operator AST SpaceMobile, while T-Mobile has a deal with SpaceX. In addition, Verizon has a deal with Skylo, the same company that will support the Charter and Comcast offerings.
Charter and Comcast Satellite-to-Cellphone Service
Telecompetitor talked with Skylo execs about their offering last year. Unlike AST SpaceMobile or SpaceX, Skylo doesn’t operate its own satellites but instead leases satellite capacity from satellite operators.
And while the AST SpaceMobile and SpaceX offerings use cellular spectrum, the Skylo offering uses two traditional satellite spectrum bands — the S-band and L-bands. That approach makes the Skylo offering well suited for emergency communications because it works in areas where cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity are not available.
It’s worth noting that Apple has a similar emergency service that works on certain iPhones. That offering is supported by a deal with Globalstar. Like the Skylo offering, the service also operates in the L-band and S-band.
Today’s announcement about the new Charter and Comcast offerings notes that Comcast already supports satellite-to-cellphone connectivity on certain devices, including iPhone 14,15 and 16 operating on iOS 18 software.
“These services are provided directly by the manufacturers and specific services available to customers vary by device type,” the announcement notes.
