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Ookla studies a 24.5% rise in international direct-to-device connections between July 2025 and March 2026 — however month-to-month utilization nonetheless stays stubbornly low
In sum — what to know:
D2D person progress: International D2D connections elevated 24.5%, coinciding with Starlink’s D2D service rollout in various international locations, Ookla discovered.
U.S. on the lead: U.S. stays the most important market, accounting for 45.9% of worldwide connections.
Utilization stays low: Lower than 0.46% customers used the service in March, in keeping with the report.
International direct-to-device (D2D) connections went up 24.5% as Starlink D2D service debuted in various international locations, at the same time as utilization stays low, in keeping with Ookla knowledge collected between July 2025 and March 2026.
The Speedtest supplier discovered that reversely, the variety of connections within the U.S. and Canada declined in that interval, presumably in impact of T-Cellular and Rogers introducing paid plans. Each companies, powered by Starlink, price below $15 a month.
U.S. maintained its lead in variety of connections, accounting for 45.9% of worldwide customers Australia accounted for 18.1% of worldwide connections, Chile 10%, and Canada 9.8%. Of observe, all of the international locations have huge tracks of rural, regional, and outback areas which are outdoors of terrestrial community protection.
Throughout a drive check performed in higher New York, Ookla reported sign strengths between -108 and -126 dBm on Starlink’s community — above the terrestrial mobile networks’ normal vary of -80 to -120 dBm.
“In all, RootMetrics’ package tried 238 occasions to ship textual content messages by means of Starlink’s D2D community [when connected to Starlink’s MNC] throughout this drive check. The telephones efficiently despatched and obtained texts 143 occasions, or roughly 60% of the time,” Mike Dano, lead business analyst and creator of the report, wrote, including that the messages took between 1 second and 5 minutes to get by means of.
But, actual utilization stays restricted, with Ookla Speedtest knowledge displaying solely 0.11% customers connecting to D2D satellites in Japan and 1.26% in Chile. U.S. and Canada sit between the 2 at 0.46% and 0.70% respectively.
D2D companies permit LTE/4G smartphones to attach on to low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, for textual content, voice, and knowledge companies in distant areas that fall outdoors of mounted community protection.
In a latest interview with RCR, Dano mentioned that with D2D companies rising incrementally, “I see a future within the close to time period the place you simply by no means have to fret about [dead zones].”
Apple pioneered D2D companies in 2022 with Apple SoS by means of Globalstar. Out there on most iPhones right this moment, the service permits customers to contact emergency companies in areas the place there’s no mobile service.
Immediately Starlink is the dominant supplier within the D2D market, with smaller gamers, like AST SpaceMobile, Skylo, Lynk International, and Amazon Leo additionally constructing out their presence.
Regardless of slim utilization, there’s palpable curiosity in D2D. Citing a International Cellular Suppliers Affiliation (GSA) report, Dano famous within the report that the service is presently out there in 15 international locations, and 61 extra are evaluating launching. Starlink alone has 59 D2D partnerships, with AST in second place with 28 partnerships.
Regardless, it’s nonetheless early days for the know-how. “D2D know-how continues to be maturing. Most such connections can solely transmit just a few bytes of knowledge,” he wrote.
Its near-term person adoption stays unsure at this level. “Technological developments can get cold and warm. All people was excited in regards to the web of issues [IoT] and never a lot anymore. Actually D2D is scorching proper now. When and if [it] cools off is anybody’s guess. So it stays to be seen how precisely it performs out,” Dano mentioned.