Europe's telecom giants chase satellite sovereignty without a fleet

On October 19, 2026, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone entered into a letter of intent to explore a possible joint bid for the European satellite spectrum. Their goal is to enable regular mobile phones to connect to satellites without the need of a proprietary, dedicated system. No license has been issued in connection with this project, and there is as yet no satellite partner. A consortium that wants the ground, not the satellites The four companies would maintain ground infrastructure, network coordination and monitoring in Europe. However, another partner would have to supply the spacecraft. Other mobile operators would receive open, non-discriminatory access to direct-to-device (D2D) services. Existing partnerships would not change, including the one with Vodafone.

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