How VEON’s (VEON) Starlink Test and Islamic Banking Push Has Changed Its Investment Story

• VEON recently announced that its subsidiary Beeline Kazakhstan completed a pioneering field test in 2025, successfully routing voice calls and messages from standard 4G smartphones via Starlink Direct to Cell satellites, while Mobilink Microfinance Bank in Pakistan launched Islamic banking operations to expand Shariah-compliant financial services.
• Together, these moves highlight VEON’s push to blend satellite and terrestrial networks for wider connectivity while broadening its digital-financial ecosystem in high-growth emerging markets.
• We’ll now examine how this breakthrough in satellite-enabled mobile coverage could reshape VEON’s investment narrative around digital growth and resilience.

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VEON Investment Narrative Recap

To own VEON, you need to believe in its ability to turn fast-growing digital services and connectivity upgrades in emerging markets into resilient, cash-generating businesses despite macro and currency swings. The Starlink Direct to Cell test and Mobilink Islamic banking launch underline that digital expansion is intact, but they do not materially change the near term focus on managing high debt costs and refinancing risk, which still looks like the key swing factor for the stock.

Among the recent announcements, the Starlink Direct to Cell field test in Kazakhstan stands out as most relevant here, because it shows VEON trying to extend coverage without fully replicating traditional tower build outs. If rolled out as planned from 2026, satellite enabled SMS in remote areas could support the broader digital ecosystem and help defend usage and revenue, which matters if asset sales and market exits continue to shrink the group’s conventional scale.

Yet while these technology wins are encouraging, investors also need to weigh the company’s high leverage and exposure to frontier market currencies, because...

Read the full narrative on VEON (it's free!)

VEON's narrative projects $5.1 billion revenue and $688.2 million earnings by 2028. This requires 7.0% yearly revenue growth and a $295.8 million earnings decrease from $984.0 million today.

Uncover how VEON's forecasts yield a $76.68 fair value, a 46% upside to its current price.

Exploring Other Perspectives

Four members of the Simply Wall St Community currently value VEON between US$45.56 and US$470.38 per share, underlining very different expectations around its future. Against that wide range, the key question many are asking is how VEON’s push into digital ecosystems and satellite enabled coverage might interact with its refinancing needs and currency risk in core markets.

Explore 4 other fair value estimates on VEON - why the stock might be worth over 8x more than the current price!

Build Your Own VEON Narrative

Disagree with existing narratives? Create your own in under 3 minutes - extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd.

• A great starting point for your VEON research is our analysis highlighting 3 key rewards and 2 important warning signs that could impact your investment decision.
• Our free VEON research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate VEON's overall financial health at a glance.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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