The German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom will soon offer mobile connections via Starlink satellites in Europe as well. The "Everywhere Network" is set to launch in several European countries in 2028, aiming to close the last remaining coverage gaps, the Bonn-based company announced on Monday. Thanks to "Direct-to-Device" technology, standard modern smartphones will be able to establish data and voice connections with satellites when out of range of cellular towers.

In the United States, Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile is already cooperating with the satellite company owned by controversial billionaire Elon Musk. According to the company, 1.3 million square kilometers in the U.S. cannot be covered by terrestrial mobile transmitters. In Germany, such white spots are significantly smaller. According to Telekom, the modern 5G mobile standard is available across nearly 90 percent of the country, while voice connection coverage stands at 99 percent.

(Reported by Hakan Ersen. Edited by Olaf Brenner. For questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for business and markets).