Holmes Mackillop director and Head of Corporate Ralph Riddiough (pictured above) has predicted that Ofcom’s (Office of Communications) authorisation of satellite connectivity for standard smartphones will revolutionise the emerging direct to device – D2D – market.

Ofcom’s confirmation that it will progress with plans to make the UK the first country in Europe to enable standard smartphones to connect to satellites using mobile spectrum bands, means that services could soon be offered in the UK to enable standard smartphones to make calls, send texts and connect to the internet when there is no coverage from mobile masts on the ground, helping to connect the UK’s most rural and hard-to-reach places.

Following consultation, Ofcom has opted to authorise D2D technology being used in mobile spectrum bands by introducing a variation to Mobile Network Operators’ (MNOs) existing licences.

Alongside this, it will create a new exemption regulation to make it lawful for ordinary users to connect to a satellite in mobile spectrum bands using a standard smartphone.

Riddiough predicts that a revolution is imminent with the advent of new technologies allowing connection via satellite, an area in which there is a fortune to be made from the emerging D2D market.

He said: “The commercial implications of uninterrupted mobile coverage anywhere on Earth, particularly beneficial in remote areas out of range of the usual terrestrial networks, is huge.

As companies race to be part of this new D2D market, the ability to protect themselves and their technology – their intellectual property – is critical.”

He added: “There are various types of IP protection from copyright to trademarks to patents, the latter of particular relevance here, as are rigorous employment contracts to prevent staff from leaking sensitive and valuable information about manufacturing, processes and products.

New technologies mean new challenges and it’s exciting to contemplate the huge benefits they will bring as well as the legal consequences and framework needed to govern them.”

Ofcom has opened a further consultation seeking views on the conditions it would include in the MNO licence variation, with the intention to create an exemption to permit mobile handsets and other sim-enabled devices to connect to direct-to-device services. Responses are invited by 10 October 2025.