• BT is the latest telco to strike a service partnership with satellite operator Starlink
• The operator will complement its fixed and mobile broadband offerings with Starlink’s high-speed service starting in late 2026 
• But it has no plans currently for a direct-to-device (D2D) offering

BT Group has struck an agreement with SpaceX’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, Starlink, that will enable it to offer satellite broadband services to its consumer customer base across the UK, starting in select rural areas in the second half of 2026. 

Starlink’s LEO constellation, currently comprising some 8,800 satellites, offers broadband service coverage across the whole of the UK.   

The UK operator, which uses its EE brand for its consumer services, says the service will complement its fixed and mobile broadband offerings by enabling broadband “in rural and remote areas where traditional fixed-line infrastructure is economically unviable or geographically challenging to build. With Starlink quick to deploy and capable of delivering download speeds of up to 280Mbit/s, the agreement marks a significant milestone in making high-speed internet connectivity widely accessible within the hardest-to-reach parts of the UK,” noted the telco. 

While BT quotes the top-level downlink speed, the truth is that Starlink’s average downlink data throughout is lower but, importantly, is regarded as reliable, consistent and good enough to deliver most consumer services: Ookla measured Starlink’s median downstream speed in the UK at about 86Mbit/s last year, which would be a great bonus for those who struggle to access decent broadband services via other networks. 

There are about 28.6 million households in the UK, with BT doing its utmost to reach as many as possible with fibre lines. In its fiscal third-quarter earnings report, also published today, the telco noted its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network now reaches 20.3 million premises (both residential and business), of which 5.5 million are in rural locations and it is still aiming to reach 25 million premises by the end of the calendar year 2026. (Its “ambition” is to reach 30 million by 2030, but that might be scaled back depending on the outcomes of the 2026 Telecoms Access Review by regulator Ofcom.)  

BT Group CEO Allison Kirkby noted: “This landmark agreement with Starlink is a giant leap for rural connectivity – allowing us to get fast and reliable in-home connectivity to our customers in some of the UK’s most rural and isolated areas, and to bridge the digital divide better than ever.”

So what will be on offer next year? BT isn’t sharing much more at the moment, though it seems likely the telco will pitch some kind of convergence package (Starlink plus mobile service). Currently, BT’s consumer fixed and mobile convergence level (the percentage of customers taking both services) is at 25.9% and growing. 

It isn’t discussing pricing yet either, noting that “exact pricing will be announced closer to launch”.

Selling directly to UK customers, Starlink currently charges £75 per month with no hardware or installation fees for its broadband connectivity: It had 87,000 customers in the UK last year. 

BT already has a satellite broadband partnership with LEO satellite operator OneWeb, now part of Eutelsat, for rural broadband coverage, but it looks like Starlink is going to be its key growth partner in this part of the market. (BT already uses Starlink and OneWeb to offer satellite connectivity to enterprise customers and as an option for mobile network backhaul connectivity.)

Will BT stop at broadband connectivity with its Starlink partnership? The SpaceX operation is striking telco partnerships to offer direct-to-device (D2D) – aka direct-to-cell (D2C) – messaging and data services to customers that are unable to connect with terrestrial cellular networks, and only last week Starlink struck a D2D agreement with one of BT’s key competitors in the UK, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). 

So is BT also set to team with Starlink for a D2D offering (which is provisioned using a subset of Starlink’s LEO constellation)? “Currently, we don’t see immediate value from D2D connectivity due to its limited capabilities and geographic reach,” BT told TelecomTV. “We see the greatest benefit of satellite in delivering broadband,” the BT spokesperson added. 

Starlink looks set to strike similar deals with other telcos in the coming years and has already brokered satellite broadband agreements in India with the country’s two largest telcos, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. 

News of Starlink’s deal with BT came as the UK operator reported shrinking sales and margins for its fiscal Q2.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV