Srini Kalapala, senior vice president of Technology and Product Development for Verizon

In late August, Verizon was the latest big name telco to team up with a satellite player for direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity. Verizon announced a deal with Skylo to launch a commercial direct-to-device messaging service for its customers so they can stay connected wherever they are.

Verizon said customers will see the benefits before the end of the year, as certain smartphones will have access to emergency messaging and location sharing even when a terrestrial cellular network is not available. Next year, the telco plans to offer the ability to text anywhere via satellite for customers with select devices. While Verizon also has agreements with AST SpaceMobile the Skylo deal is further evidence of the telco’s interest in D2D via satellite.

In this interview, Via Satellite talks to Srini Kalapala, senior vice president of Technology and Product Development for Verizon, about the deal with Skylo, as well as the broader opportunities for partnerships with the satellite industry. 

VIA SATELLITE: What is the significance of this partnership with Skylo, why was it the right time for Verizon to work with the company?

Kalapala: We have been looking at satellite for a long time. We have partnerships with multiple satellite companies delivering emergency communications, remote and rural broadband services and we have been doing that for awhile. We have been looking at satellite devices. We had an announcement with AST SpaceMobile where we made an investment there. With Skylo, we are looking to deliver on new devices, especially the Google Pixel and Samsung side. So, satellite connectivity for emergency services, and peer-to-peer messaging connectivity in a couple of quarters. Combined with what we did with AST SpaceMobile, it made sense to start working with Skylo.

VIA SATELLITE: How does Verizon view working with the satellite industry now? Have your views changed about satellite capabilities changed?

Kalapala: We have always looked at satellite connectivity as a complementary connectivity to what we offer, both in our terrestrial broadband or terrestrial mobile. We have always seen it as complementary, and we always use satellite communications to deliver that coverage and connectivity to customers where they don’t have regular terrestrial or cellular broadband.

So, why now? It is getting more interesting from a couple of angles. Firstly, the satellite industry is continuing to innovate in terms of delivering more capable vehicles in LEO [Low-Earth Orbit], and the ability to deliver capability direct to the cellular phones makes it attractive. More than 99% of the time we are able to have our customers connected using our terrestrial mobile connectivity. But there are always areas where there is no coverage or it is impossible. In those cases, we would like our customers to have some sort of connectivity available for emergencies and to connect to loved ones. We see these innovations from satellite as interesting and good. Our view has not changed, but we like what we are seeing here.

VIA SATELLITE: Did you consider other players other than Skylo? What was it about Skylo that made you want to partner with them?

Kalapala: We have made an announcement with AST SpaceMobile. With AST, we would be delivering satellite to device connectivity using our own spectrum. That means all our devices in our customers hand will be able to get satellite connectivity through that model. What we like about Skylo, it is based on satellite bands, and it is based on the NTN standards, and because it is on satellite spectrum, we do not need to free up any terrestrial spectrum to utilize this. The other thing we like about Skylo, we as Verizon don’t have to worry about the actual satellite behind Skylo. They work with other players to enable connectivity. We kind of like that. If the systems are able to deliver low level data and voice, we can offer that to our customers without freeing up terrestrial spectrum. That is one thing that is interesting about the Skylo model.

VIA SATELLITE: Do you believe the partnership with Skylo gives you some kind of competitive advantage of other telcos?

Kalapala: I hope so. The fact that we have this partnership means we have our customers staying connected. We think this is an advantage we can offer customers.

VIA SATELLITE: Could we see Verizon and other telcos do other partnerships with major players in the satellite sector?

Kalapala: We look to deliver the best and most reliable connectivity to our customers. First, we do it ourselves by building our networks, and then we look at partners. There could be other partnerships down the road. Whoever has the right technology, we will certainly engage with them.

In the U.S. market, you have seen all three big carriers make some kind of announcement, whether it is SpaceX or AST SpaceMobile, etc. When I talk to colleagues and others in markets like Australia, and countries where they have large unpopulated geographies and difficult terrains, they are definitely interested. They are all trying to see how this pans out in the U.S. The U.S. tends to shape the markets in terms of technologies, so they are waiting to see how it shapes up before they step on board. A number of countries are watching, especially those where they have large geographies that can’t be fully connected with terrestrial connectivity.

When we talk to other international telcos in private, they are all trying to understand how this works. They have similar needs. Down the road, we expect vehicles will need some form of connectivity down the road, especially where there is no cellular connectivity. I think you will hear more of the telco and satellite partnerships.

VIA SATELLITE: How important is constant connectivity now? Is this idea becoming mainstream?

Kalapala: We need to see this. If you are asking my opinion, I am not fully there on ‘constant connectivity’ but I think the expectation is when they need connectivity it is available, whether for emergency or talking to loved ones, it will be there. The expectations are getting there. But it is not a tremendous amount of use. The expectation is if you really need it, you can leverage different options, and it is available.

VIA SATELLITE: Apple did a deal with Globalstar two years ago which was the talk of the satellite industry and enabled satellite connectivity via an iPhone. Did this change the dynamics?

Kalapala: I would say that was a certainly a catalyst. It made the carriers understand how we could help keep our customers connected and it helped customers know there is a potential to leverage potential connectivity options. The reason why there are telco/satellite partnership is that our customer is not looking to figure out when to connect to terrestrial and when to connect to satellite. They want Verizon to figure it out. There is an expectation from our customers to make satellite connectivity available when there is no terrestrial connection. That seamlessness is the expectation that we see from our customers. They are looking at us and asking us to figure it out. Apple was the catalyst for this change in expectation. 

VIA SATELLITE: What are the technical or cyber challenges when looking to work with a satellite player?

Kalapala: We look at all of this is having a discrete network system. Let’s say you travel, as an example, from Canada from the device. Your device will then roam on a Canadian network. When it roams, it verifies if you allowed to roam and what services you can use. We expect a similar model for satellite. When there is no terrestrial network, you will end up roaming on a satellite network, and there will be some level of handshake between the satellite network and Verizon to make sure you are a subscriber and you have plans that allows you to use this particular service. These are discrete subsystems. There will be enough security posture built in so that cannot be broken into. We are watching this on a regular basis. We will start treating [Skylo and AST SpaceMobile] in the same manner. They are discrete networks that will interact with us. If there is abnormal behavior, we will take the right steps to protect our customers.