Orange warns Starlink D2D could bite operators who bungle it

Orange's technology chief has told the industry that direct-to-device satellite services like SpaceX's Starlink could turn from opportunity to threat unless operators weave them into the ordinary mobile experience.

Speaking at TIP FYUZ 2026 in Seattle, Laurent Leboucher — Orange's CTO, EVP of networks and a Telecom Infra Project board member — put the point bluntly: D2D should not be treated as something outside the telco world.

"I think it's part of the mobile experience," he said. "It has to be integrated very seamlessly, smoothly into the mobile experience, but it's not easy, and we need to work to make it happen."

Satellite cuts both ways, he argued. Operators can profit from it, or they can hand leverage to rivals who do the integration better. "I think it's in our power to make it the right way," he explained.

What can't wait for 6G?

Leboucher named two shifts he refuses to defer to the next generation: D2D and agentic AI. Customer relations will adopt agentic AI, he said, and customers may increasingly bring their own personal agents — not just to operators, but to banks and plenty of other industries.

His view of the technology cycle is candid. Preparing a new generation of mobile technology every ten years is a habit that's gone, he said, and most innovation from here on will come from software.

Does 6G need new radio hardware?

Hardware still has to change somewhat, though. Operators need more spectrum and more capacity, and Leboucher offered a concrete ceiling: using a full 400MHz of bandwidth is not possible in 5G.

He said experts now agree the industry needs a new radio access technology, not just an upgrade of what exists.

"We cannot do everything just by an evolution of the existing radio access technology of 5G and 5G-Advanced," Leboucher said.

The new radio technology would also help with energy consumption and spectral efficiency — and the latter matters more than it sounds.

"There is a strong expectation that we could make a lot of progress on spectral efficiency, and for us, as telecoms, it means a lot," he said.

"The spectrum is really our scarcest resource," he added. Doubling efficiency, on that logic, would matter a great deal.

Sensing and physical AI strengthen the case for radio-side changes. Today's 5G networks can already do a lot of sensing, he noted, but the accuracy required eats a lot of bandwidth.

Will operators actually buy it?

Leboucher set a hard condition for any procurement. "We will buy new hardware only if it's relevant," he said, adding that relevance will vary by country.

The business case is critical, in his view. The industry must work on demand and on monetisation, not just on efficiency gains — a quiet reminder that spectral efficiency alone has never paid a dividend.

For now, Orange's message to vendors is a shopping list with conditions attached: a genuinely new radio access technology, better spectral efficiency and satellite folded into the mobile experience. The vendors that read the small print will know the purchases only happen where the business case survives contact with arithmetic.