Airtel Africa has concluded tests on satellite-to-mobile connectivity in Kenya under its deal with Elon Musk's Starlink, ahead of a planned rollout of the technology in rural areas that lack traditional telecoms infrastructure coverage.
Airtel said that during the pilot run, standard 4G smartphones in remote locations with no terrestrial mobile signal successfully connected directly to Starlink’s assemblage of low-earth orbit satellites, giving users access to messaging and light data services without relying on ground-based network towers.
