Ofcom's 900 MHz Licence Exemption Takes Effect, and the UK Opens Direct-to-Device Through Its Existing Mobile Bands
On 10 July 2026 an Ofcom amendment adding 880.1–885.1 MHz and 925.1–930.1 MHz to the UK's direct-to-device licence exemption came into force, clearing VodafoneThree to run satellite-to-phone service with AST SpaceMobile over its own 900 MHz spectrum. The UK route is a licence exemption layered on mobile bands, a different mechanism from the conditioned US grants, and it turns the mobile operator's licence into the coordination point.
What happened
On 10 July 2026 an Ofcom amendment to the UK's direct-to-device satellite licence-exemption framework came into force, adding two slices of the 900 MHz band, 880.1–885.1 MHz and 925.1–930.1 MHz, to the frequencies over which handsets can connect to satellites without an individual licence. The amendment follows Ofcom's April 2026 decision to vary VodafoneThree's licence so the operator can offer satellite-to-phone service using its own 900 MHz spectrum, in partnership with AST SpaceMobile. The 900 MHz band, once used for 3G, carries further than higher bands, which suits wide-area rural coverage. VodafoneThree has said its service will handle data, voice, and SMS and run customer trials in the UK over summer 2026.
The exemption sits on top of a base regulation. The Wireless Telegraphy (Direct to Device Satellite Communications) (Exemption) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/139, were made on 16 February and came into force on 25 February, first opening the exemption in the 1800 MHz band that Virgin Media O2 uses. The framework permits GSM, UMTS, LTE, and 5G NR operation under set power limits and excludes commercial multi-user gateway devices. The UK approach authorizes the satellite link through the mobile operator's own band and licence, so a carrier brings its spectrum to the satellite partner rather than the satellite operator holding a separate national grant.
Why it matters for dispute formation
The mechanism is the story. In the United States the supplemental-coverage-from-space grants that let AST reach handsets came fenced with power-flux-density limits and a duty to cease beams on harmful interference, conditions attached to the satellite operator. The UK instead exempts handsets from licensing over specified mobile frequencies and leans on the mobile carrier's existing licence for the band. That puts the coordination point on the carrier's spectrum rights: whether the satellite downlink stays inside the exempted slices, whether it protects adjacent 900 MHz and 1800 MHz users, and whether the carrier's licence conditions reach the satellite service all become questions about the mobile licence rather than a bespoke satellite authorization.
For regulatory and commercial teams the diligence follows the mechanism. Read the exemption's band edges and power limits as the operating envelope, because a link that drifts outside them loses the exemption. Check how the VodafoneThree-AST commercial agreement allocates responsibility for staying within Ofcom's technical conditions, since the carrier holds the licence but the satellite operator flies the hardware. Watch the two UK lanes, 900 MHz for VodafoneThree and 1800 MHz for Virgin Media O2, for divergent conditions that could complicate a device sold into both. And hold the UK exemption against the US grant and the emerging FCC unlicensed-D2D proposal: an operator serving both markets runs a licence-exemption regime and a conditioned-grant regime on the same constellation.
Who's exposed
Exposed as the mobile operator whose own 900 MHz licence now underpins a direct-to-device service: Ofcom approved the licence variation in April 2026 and the exemption amendment lets its handsets use the band for satellite links, so the carrier's spectrum rights and licence conditions, not a separate satellite authorization, carry the service.
Exposed as the satellite partner supplying the low-orbit link into VodafoneThree's ground stations and core network; its UK service depends on the mobile operator's band rights and on the exemption's technical limits rather than a standalone UK spectrum grant of its own.
Exposed as the operator the base regulation was written around: SI 2026/139, made 16 February and in force 25 February, first opened the exemption in the 1800 MHz band, so the UK now runs two carrier-specific D2D lanes whose technical conditions and interference posture can diverge.
Exposed as the regulator that chose a licence-exemption route layered on existing mobile bands, so its exemption regulations and the underlying carrier licences, not a bespoke satellite authorization, become the record any interference or coordination dispute is argued against.
The historical parallel · Ligado / LightSquared vs GPS and DoD (L-band interference)
Ligado's plan to run a terrestrial network in L-band drew years of harmful-interference objections from GPS users and the Department of Defense and ended in a constrained FCC order. It fixed the lesson that a spectrum authorization is only as strong as the interference conditions and band edges attached to it, and that a grant can issue and still be fought for years over out-of-band effects. The UK route packages that protection differently, as a licence exemption with defined frequency slices and power limits rather than a conditioned grant, but the fault line is the same: whether the satellite link stays inside its envelope and protects the neighbours, and what happens to the exemption if it does not.
What to watch
- How Ofcom polices the exemption's band edges and power limits in practice, and what a satellite link that drifts outside 880.1–885.1 or 925.1–930.1 MHz loses.
- Whether the 900 MHz (VodafoneThree) and 1800 MHz (Virgin Media O2) lanes develop divergent technical conditions that complicate handsets sold into both.
- How the VodafoneThree–AST SpaceMobile agreement allocates responsibility between the carrier's licence and the satellite operator's hardware for staying inside Ofcom's conditions.
- Whether the UK licence-exemption route and the US supplemental-coverage grants converge or diverge as AST and others serve both markets.
Sources
- Ofcom — Statement: Direct to Device licence exemption regulations update
- legislation.gov.uk — The Wireless Telegraphy (Direct to Device Satellite Communications) (Exemption) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/139)
- Bird & Bird — UK Satellite Direct-to-Device Regulatory Tracker
- ISPreview — Ofcom approve VodafoneThree to launch satellite-based UK mobile service
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Get the Intelligence BriefFor general information only; not legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is formed through this article. Company names appear because the companies are exposed to a public development — not as a statement of wrongdoing or a predicted outcome. Figures are as reported by the linked sources.