Chinese company Yuanxin Satellite has announced the successful completion of the country’s first satellite phone call made from a regular commercial smartphone without any modifications. The call was facilitated by an experimental direct-to-device satellite launched into orbit on June 9, 2026.
According to the developers, a standard off-the-shelf smartphone was used during the tests, and the voice call quality was comparable to that of modern 5G networks. The user required neither a specialized satellite phone nor any additional equipment.
The core technology behind this achievement is a next-generation satellite equipped with a digital phased array antenna operating in the L-band. Engineers successfully addressed one of the major challenges in satellite communications—signal latency and distortion. To overcome this, they developed a proprietary system for compensating and dynamically adjusting data transmission parameters.
The key differentiator of this technology is its ability to connect ordinary smartphones directly to the satellite. The company reports that the system ensures a stable signal during calls, high communication quality, and compatibility with existing mobile infrastructure.
The tests were conducted using the experimental Yuanxin Satellite, which was launched aboard the Zhuque-2E Y6 rocket alongside the China Mobile 02/CMCC-02 satellite. Both spacecraft are designed to test direct satellite communication technologies and to integrate space-based and terrestrial networks for next-generation communication systems.
This project is part of China’s broader initiative to build the “Thousand Sails” satellite constellation. Approximately 200 of the company’s satellites are already operational in orbit. By 2027, the number is planned to increase to 1,296 units, with a long-term goal of exceeding 15,000 satellites.
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