SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh kicked off SATELLITE 2025 with the announcement that the operator is partnering with Lynk Global on a direct-to-device (D2D) service offering. Under the strategic partnership, SES will invest in Lynk’s Series B and become a channel partner for government, MNO, and automotive customers to access Lynk’s D2D network.
“We are going to partner from a go-to-market perspective in how we take this service to our customers. I’m excited about government, automotive, and mobile network operators, where we can take those capabilities to them,” Al-Saleh said. SES will also provide relay services routing traffic between Lynk’s LEO satellites and SES’s MEO satellites, network-as-a-service via SES’s global ground network, and TTC&M services via SES’s GEO satellites.
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Al-Saleh said the companies plan to move Lynk’s satellite manufacturing to Europe to address sovereign connectivity demand: “Given the dynamics in the world, every continent, every political entity is looking for sovereignty. We will bring that capability to Europe to make sure that we can create an opportunity to participate in European projects.”
SES sees D2D as a “huge opportunity” with multi-year growth potential. Al-Saleh noted that SES’s MEO network is a structural advantage: “We believe our network in space — specifically MEO — is a great advantage to be able to move traffic between LEO constellations to MEO to deliver real-time services.”
Lynk CEO Ramu Potarazu said: “This long-term strategic collaboration with SES will deeply integrate our networks to enhance our capabilities, and validates our LEO D2D network.” VS
