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Virgin Media O2 today announced a sorely needed expansion to the list of phones compatible with its O2 Satellite mobile service. If you own an iPhone 13, 14, 15, 16 or Air, and you’re an O2 customer, you can now benefit from the first satellite mobile service in the UK.
What is O2 Satellite?
Virgin Media O2 originally launched O2 Satellite back in February of this year: at the time, it was billed as a black spot-busting innovation that would expand the network’s UK coverage from 89% to a whopping 95%.
Created in partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network, O2 Satellite enables access to texts, messaging services such as WhatsApp and weather/location-based services such as Google Maps when in a mobile network black spot – which accounted for around 8% of the UK’s landmass in 2022, according to Ofcom.
How much does it cost?
The service, which launched on Thursday 26 February, costs £3/mth to use. Existing O2 Pay Monthly customers can add O2 Satellite as a Bolt-on to their current plan; the service is also available at no added cost to O2 customers on an Ultimate Plan.
Virgin Media/O2 says that compatible handsets will automatically switch from terrestrial to satellite mobile network when signal drops.
To that end, O2 Satellite can also act as a back-up when signal fails for other reasons beyond entering a known “black spot” – such as a temporary power outage or other technical failure.
Which phones does it support?
The full list of compatible phones is still pretty brief even with the addition of Apple’s more recent iPhones, but it’s as follows:
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
- Samsung Galaxy S25
- iPhone 17 Pro Max/17 Pro/17/17e
- iPhone Air
- iPhone 16 Pro Max/16 Pro/16 Plus/16/16e
- iPhone 15 Pro Max/15 Pro/15 Plus/15
- iPhone 13 Pro Max/13 Pro/13/13 mini
- iPhone 14 Pro Max/14 Pro/14 Plus/14
O2 hasn’t been clear on when we can expect more handsets to gain compatibility, but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that the new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus might join the list in due course.
According to Virgin Media/O2’s official communication, O2 Satellite will unlock a coverage area roughly “two-thirds the size of Wales”. The network promises that more features (beyond texts, messaging and location/weather services) will become available in time.
Which apps can I use?
With the addition of Apple device support comes additional (Apple) app support:
- Apple Compass
- Apple Fitness
- Apple Maps
- Apple Messages
- Apple Music
But here are the apps that were supported at launch:
- AccuWeather
- AllTrails
- Apple Weather
- BBC Weather
- Facebook Messenger
- Google Find Hub
- Google Maps
- Google Messages
- Google Personal Safety
- Samsung Weather
- X
- Yahoo Mail
More apps are coming soon, although again, O2 hasn’t been specific. A full complement of social media apps would be a good start – as would a wider selection of fitness-tracking apps.
It’s also important to note that calls to emergency services aren’t currently supported by O2 Satellite, which unfortunately puts paid to any ideas you might have had about the safety benefits of the new tech.
In any event, this is a substantial step forwards for UK mobile network coverage, and I’ll be very interested to see whether it has any bearing on our 2026 edition of the Expert Reviews Mobile Network Awards.
You can find out more about O2 Satellite via the O2 website.
