Charter and Comcast Launch Satellite Connectivity for Mobile Devices

STAMFORD, Conn. & PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 20, 2025--

Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) today announced that their respective mobile businesses, Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile, have launched satellite-based services through a collaboration with Skylo, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) service provider. The feature is now available on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 devices and will provide customers with access to emergency messaging services when their device is not connected to either a cellular or WiFi network. The ability to send and receive SMS text messages over satellite service on Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 devices is expected to be added in the coming weeks.

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In addition to Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9, both Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers already have access to emergency messaging via satellite backup service on select Apple and Google devices, provided directly by the manufacturers.

“The availability of satellite backup service provides Spectrum Mobile customers with a sense of security, knowing they can stay connected even in the most remote locations,” said Danny Bowman, Executive Vice President, Product, Charter Communications. “We are delivering cutting-edge technology that continues to empower our customers with the confidence that their communication needs are always met, no matter where they are."

“Today, our wireless customers already benefit from the nation’s largest and fastest converged network in and out of the home with over tens of millions of hotspots delivering up to gig speeds,” said Emily Waldorf, Senior Vice President, Consumer Products, Comcast. “And now, we’re excited to further enhance our connectivity experiences with these satellite-based services to help our Xfinity Mobile customers stay connected in situations where they need it most.”

"We understand how crucial it is to stay connected,” added Paul Hanton, Vice President of Skylo's Global Carrier Partnerships. “Skylo’s groundbreaking satellite network, combined with the reach of Charter and Comcast, will bring enhanced coverage to countless individuals. We're proud to be building a future where everyone can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with reliable, always-on connectivity."

Skylo plans to make its services available on additional devices in the future. Satellite-based services are already being offered to Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers through a select number of other devices, including iPhone 14, 15 and 16 operating on iOS 18 software. These services are provided directly by the manufacturers and specific services available to customers vary by device type.

Each company’s business mobile services, Spectrum Business and Comcast Business Mobile, also benefit from the satellite services from Skylo. Customers from each of these consumer and business mobile services have the nation’s largest WiFi network and most reliable 5G at their fingertips, with at least 87 percent of mobile traffic traveling over each company’s respective WiFi networks.

For more information or to purchase a device, visit Spectrum.com/mobile, Xfinity.com/mobile or any Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile retail location.

About Spectrum

Spectrum is a suite of advanced communications services offered by Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator with services available to nearly 57 million homes and businesses in 41 states. Over an advanced communications network, the Company offers a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet®, TV, Mobile and Voice.

More information can be found at corporate.charter.com.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile Customers Benefit from Always-On Connectivity

LONDON (AP) — Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer agent who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to Britain, has died. He was 86.

Gordievsky died March 4 in England, where he had lived since defecting in 1985. Police said Saturday that they are not treating his death as suspicious.

Historians consider Gordievsky one of the era’s most important spies. In the 1980s, his intelligence helped avoid a dangerous escalation of nuclear tensions between the USSR and the West.

Born in Moscow in 1938, Gordievsky joined the KGB in the early 1960s, serving in Moscow, Copenhagen and London, where he became KGB station chief.

He was one of several Soviet agents who grew disillusioned with the USSR after Moscow’s tanks crushed the Prague Spring freedom movement in 1968, and was recruited by Britain's MI6 in the early 1970s.

The 1990 book “KGB: The Inside Story,” co-authored by Gordievsky and British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, says Gordievsky came to believe that “the Communist one-party state leads inexorably to intolerance, inhumanity and the destruction of liberties.” He decided that the best way to fight for democracy “was to work for the West.”

He worked for British intelligence for more than a decade during the chilliest years of the Cold War.

In 1983, Gordievsky warned the U.K. and U.S. that the Soviet leadership was so worried about a nuclear attack by the West that it was considering a first strike. As tensions spiked during a NATO military exercise in Germany, Gordievsky helped reassure Moscow that it was not precursor to a nuclear attack.

Soon after, U.S. President Ronald Reagan began moves to ease nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union.

Gordievsky was called back to Moscow for consultations in 1985, and decided to go despite fearing — correctly — that his role as a double agent had been exposed. He was interrogated but not charged, and Britain arranged an undercover operation to spirit him out of the Soviet Union in the trunk of a car.

He was the most senior Soviet spy to defect during the Cold War. Documents declassified in 2014 showed that Britain considered Gordievsky so valuable that then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sought to cut a deal with Moscow: If Gordievsky’s wife and daughters were allowed to join him in London, Britain would not expel all the KGB agents he had exposed.

Moscow rejected the offer, and Thatcher ordered the expulsion of 25 Russians, despite objections from Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, who fared it could scuttle relations just as reforming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was easing the stalemate between Russia and the West.

Moscow responded by expelling 25 Britons, sparking a second round in which each side kicked out six more officials. But, despite Howe’s fears, diplomatic relations were never severed.

Gordievsky’s family was kept under 24-hour KGB surveillance for six years before being allowed to join him in England in 1991. He lived the rest of his life under U.K. protection in the quiet town of Godalming, 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of London.

In Russia, Gordievsky was sentenced to death for treason. In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 2007 for “services to the security of the United Kingdom.” It is the same accolade held by the fictional British spy James Bond.

In 2008, Gordievsky claimed he had been poisoned and spent 34 hours in a coma after taking tainted sleeping pills given to him by a Russian business associate.

The risks he faced were underscored in 2018 when former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned and seriously sickened with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury, where he had been living quietly for years.

The Surrey Police force said officers were called to an address in Godalming on March 4, where “an 86-year-old man was found dead at the property.”

It said counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation, but “the death is not currently being treated as suspicious” and “there is nothing to suggest any increased risk to members of the public.”

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 1999 file photo, Oleg Gordievsky, a former deputy head of the KGB in London, prepares to testify before a House Armed Services Subcommittee in Washington. He died March 4 in England at the age of 86. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)