D2C and the Future of a Free Internet

Direct-to-cell (D2C) satellite internet is a new generation of technology that can connect any smartphone on earth directly to the internet from space. No ground infrastructure. No carrier permission. No hardware to install.

Today, D2C is being built by private companies for commercial markets. Multiple operators across the United States, Europe, and Asia are racing to deploy this technology, and the commitments they make to connectivity rights, humanitarian access, and fundamental freedoms will shape whether D2C serves everyone or only those who are profitable to reach.

This technology carries a far greater potential than any single company’s roadmap: to make internet connectivity a global public good that no government can shut off and no single company controls.

That outcome is not guaranteed. The infrastructure, the spectrum, the rules governing who can access satellite connectivity and where, all of it is being decided right now. Left to market forces alone, D2C will optimise for profit. Left to current frameworks of internet governance and digital sovereignty, states will ensure it develops in the same ways traditional internet has, to be controlled and shut down to stifle rights and freedoms. Shaped deliberately, it can become the foundation for universal, resilient internet access that is beyond the reach of authoritarian control.

This campaign exists to make sure that happens.