Satellite base-station company Lynk announces first customers

US ‘cell-tower-in-space’ company Lynk offers a different take on satellite connectivity and has now gone commercial.

Lynk uses LEO satellites, just like Starlink and OneWeb, but the difference is that it establishes a direct connection straight to devices, as opposed to using a terrestrial hub. It does this through some proprietary technology that makes the device think it’s dealing with a regular base station, which we discussed in a recent podcast. The first operators to give it a go are based in in the Bahamas and in the Central African Republic.

“Lynk is proud to announce the first two mobile network operators as a part of our Flagship partnership program,” said Charles Miller, Lynk co-founder, and CEO. “This speaks to the visionary leadership of Aliv and Telecel Centrafrique, which recognize the powerful benefits of providing universal mobile broadband to their customers.

“Lynk is solving a problem that nobody else in the world is solving. We call it The 0G Problem. Next time you hear somebody use the phrase ‘5G’, ask yourself ‘How does 5G solve the World’s 0G problem?’ The answer … it doesn’t.”

As we noted on the podcast, it sounds almost too good to be true. If there’s a way to connect regular phones straight to a satellite without any price premium or performance hit then why isn’t everyone doing it? The proof will be in things like durability of connection, bandwidth, and price but if all of those stack up well then it looks like Elon Musk and co have something to worry about.

“Aliv is excited to be one of Lynk’s first Flagship operators,” says Stephen Curran, Aliv’s CTO. “Providing coverage, particularly in the Caribbean given our sometimes extreme weather events, we need to ensure we have emergency communications back-up, when the network experiences issues, and our sites are down.

“Lynk will provide that critical communication service on land and for our maritime users – with the phones they have in their pockets today. We are very excited with the testing we have been executing in the last period and look forward to rolling this out next year to our users.”

“By partnering with Lynk, Telecel aims to bridge the digital divide by extending its services to all the population, no matter where they are,” said Telecel Centrafique CEO Malek Atrissi. “This is in line with our vision to bring connectivity to all Central Africans as telecommunication today has become a basic need- whether in voice, data, fintech or any other VAS & digital services.

“We urge others in our continent to see Lynk as an optimal solution to help support our mutual mission as operators – to bring us together with safe, good quality and continuous communication. We know that it enhances the lives of our citizens to have access to mobile services and give them constant and continuous access.”

Lynk has only been around for four year and getting the commercial endorsement of two operators, however small, is a significant step. It has already applied for its FCC operator’s license and hopes to be offering worldwide LEO connectivity from next year. In the mean time it’s lobbing satellites into the sky as quickly as it can, aiming to produce 200 a month next year.