Will satellite D2D work indoors? Why in-building coverage is the real test

• Vendors and some analysts were still not sure that D2D services will work indoors

• Some suggested that repeater systems could help D2D shine indoors

• One analyst said that building owners wouldn't pay for the CPE

Direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services were to the fore at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona. One of the main questions that remain, however, is how well they will work indoors.

Starlink talked about their version 2 satellites at the show. AST SpaceMobile revealed its latest deal with Rakuten Mobile aimed at launching D2D satellite services in the 4th quarter of this year. As a result, Starlink and AST SpaceMobile must prove whether satellite services can actually offer service indoors.

The indoor question

Some industry analysts are still unconvinced by the possibility of indoor satellite data and cell offerings actually working well indoors.

“I have never thought satellite [services] should be available indoors,” Ookla lead analyst Mike Dano stated at the show. “It’s like saying Wi-Fi doesn’t come from satellites.”

Mobile Experts analyst Joe Madden told Fierce, “The in-building coverage question is really the most important question in my D2D market research right now,” With the Starlink/SpaceX generation 2 satellites coming online in mid-2027 and AST SpaceMobile planning to launch up to 60 satellites this year, according to its president, 2026 to 2027 will be the proving time for D2D satellite services.

Satellite vendors are starting to deliver solutions to the indoor problem, Rakuten Symphony’s Anshul Bhatt said at the show. “There are I think solutions...where there is a CPE but there is also an outdoor unit which would create an FWA kind of account,” Bhatt said to Fierce during our interview at the show.

“The primary use case still remains outdoors for now,” he stressed.

Who will pay for the CPE?

This throws up questions like who would pay for such equipment? The user or the satellite provider? And how would such systems be implemented to support apartment buildings and offices, rather than just single homes?

"What Musk said back in September is that you could move onto your Starlink broadband terminal's WiFi connection when at home," said Tim Farrar at TMF Associates. "But cable companies have much more infrastructure in urban areas and still need to offload about 10% of their traffic to their MVNO partner (Verizon). Starlink would need to offload more than that because they don't have as many urban and suburban customers."

“The in-building wireless business model has been tested in many different ways over the past 30 years,” Madden opined, referring to in-building satellite support systems. “One thing that we can conclude firmly is that no wireless service will scale up easily if the building owner needs to spend money and effort to install some kind of repeater system.”

“AST SpaceMobile claims that their system will work indoors (in typical residential homes, in cars, etc), while many others claim that indoor performance will be very limited,” he stated. “The AST SpaceMobile system uses a gigantic receiver in space, to capture as much energy from our puny smartphones as possible.”   

“SpaceX uses a smaller receiver (bigger in V2 than in V1, but still capturing less energy than the AST-S design),” he said.

So, this would likely mean that a Starlink D2D system would still need some kind of in-home repeater system to make it work.

Still, the proof of the pudding will come for both AST, Starlink and others after they start offering a widespread D2D service, only then can it really be tested in the home and beyond. “I am hoping to test the AST network soon to verify its indoor performance,” Madden noted. “If it works, the business model can change dramatically.”