Digital illustration of a smartphone with floating layered icons and connecting nodes, symbolizing mobile connectivity and data sharing across a global network.

Just about everybody is excited about the prospects of direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity to cell phones and other mobile devices, even if guardedly so.

Some satellite operators see the potential for breaking out of their historical niches, while mobile network operators (MNO) anticipate more access to untapped remote markets with upsides big enough to pursue. Just last week, for example, Apple announced an additional $1.5 billion investment in partner Globalstar to fund a new constellation.

The ‘guarded’ part is important, however. Obstacles remain in making these two worlds work smoothly together in a way that can support high consumer service expectations.

In a recent session at Silicon Valley Space Week covered by Constellations content partner Space Intel Report, Mark Dankberg, Chairman of Viasat, highlighted two of the biggest challenges: network interoperability and national sovereignty. Dankberg is also Chairman of the Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA), a non-profit industry association formed earlier this year to advance global mobile connectivity for D2D and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

To greatly summarize Dankberg on network interoperability, mobile satellite services providers should make their networks compatible not just with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard that enables 5G, but also with each other’s satellites.

As Peter de Selding wrote for Space Intel Report, “Dankberg said the mobile satellite service industry is faced with the same question posed to MNOs years ago: Remain stove-piped with your own network or open it up to competing providers to allow seamless roaming for customers, and to share the cost of cell towers?”

My (extremely) modest contribution to Dankberg’s premise is just this, it will have benefits far beyond just D2D.

Here’s the good news: if satcom network operators follow the 3GPP standard for 5G release 17 or later, they’ll have the technical solution needed for nearly all satcom interoperability: D2D, low data rate IOT, broadband high data rate applications and more. And not just between satellite operators, but with telecommunications infrastructure they connect to as well.

The combination of vertical and horizonal infrastructure interoperability enabled by the 3GPP standards will open new markets, while also making satellite services simpler for consumers and bring additional benefits, such as more effective terminal-to-beam assignments and better mobility in a spot beam satellite architecture.

And Dankberg is also right about his second major point, sovereignty concerns will be a major challenge for regulators which must be addressed. I couldn’t agree more, and, again, not just for D2D. National security factors always have been a challenge, especially for satellites.

That said, however, while interoperability between networks is one area of my professional expertise, interoperability between nations isn’t, so I’ll leave that one to the MSSA.