2025 - a turning point for satellites in telecoms

2025 saw telecom giants accelerate their integration efforts of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) to bridge connectivity gaps and future-proof the sector.

As the industry further shifts from viewing satellites as standalone solutions to critical components of hybrid terrestrial-NTN architectures, here we look back at some of the top stories and key developments over this past year. 

Satellite and terrestrial integration

A 2025 survey showed that NTNs are viewed by the telecom industry as reinforcing service reliability and adding an extra layer of network redundancy to 5G. This view increasingly makes the convergence of satellites and 5G (and fibre) a mainstream application in telecoms. 

In an interview with Telecoms.com , Director of Business Development at Intelsat emphasised that satellites will complement terrestrial networks, not compete with them. he also suggested seamless handover between terrestrial networks and NTNs as well as between different satellite systems (e.g. LEO ang GEO) should be prioritised.

In 2025, one leading market proved just that. Japan guided the industry with a 5G-satellite demo, involving five organisations, showcasing seamless handover between terrestrial and NTNs. 

The rise of LEO & D2D

2025 saw a large number of developments in LEO satellites and D2D. Below we share a small snapshot of some of the key stories. 

Incumbent Orange added Eutelsat's LEO capabilities to its portfolio while Amazon’s recently rebranded LEO project launched the Ultra customer terminals directly connecting users to satellites without ground infrastructure and its support for enterprise applications.