Deutsche Telekom brought satellite communications goals led by its T-Mobile US unit to Europe, completing a trial in which terrestrial infrastructure was incorporated with Skylo Technologies’ non-terrestrial network (NTN) kit to provide SMS on normal devices.

The German operator stated the test employed 3GPP Release-17 specifications for direct-to-device communications and opened the door to providing ubiquitous coverage by allowing customers lacking access to its terrestrial network to communicate using the NTN option.

It stated it is “the first time in Europe that an operator’s terrestrial mobile network has been integrated into a satellite network to enable texting based on the 3GPP Release-17 specifications for direct-to-handset (D2H) connectivity”.

Deutsche Telekom’s Greek unit Cosmote conducted the trial in conjunction with Skylo Technologies and Qualcomm: the latter pair completed testing involving the chip maker’s Snapdragon X80 5G modem-RF system in September.

The operator explained an SMS was transmitted on dedicated mobile satellite spectrum to a device sporting the Qualcomm Snapdragon product.

It added the specific spectrum would prove beneficial in providing a pan-European service by getting round a need for cross-border coordination.

“Direct-to-handset will be an add-on to our mobile networks allowing our customers to easily text from anywhere on their regular devices without any separate apps,” Antje Williams, SVP business creation at Deutsche Telekom’s Group Technology division said.

In addition to boosting consumer coverage, the operator foresees uses by emergency services and in disaster response.

Skylo Technologies differs from other D2H satellite offerings from companies including Lynk Global and AST SpaceMobile as it does not own any satellites itself and instead partners with established players including Ligado Networks and Viasat.

It uses L-band spectrum owned by its GEO satellite partners.

Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo Technologies’ commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3GPP standards-based cloud-native base station and core.

It has already secured a commercial deal with US mobile operator Verizon.