BUILDING BRITAIN'S FIRST OPEN SOURCE, COMMUNITY RUN COMMS NETWORK.
A British telecoms network, built from the ground up. We run our own mobile core, IMS and SIP infrastructure, delivering fully working VoLTE, mobile data, SMS, voicemail and SIP services.
Lodestar VoLTE calls are free between members and our voice platform is open to everyone. External PSTN calling is currently in development, as we work towards making Lodestar a complete voice network.
We’re building something different: a network with the infrastructure, flexibility and value to take on traditional mobile and VoIP providers.
Two services. One community network.
Lodestar Mobile is the mobile network. A SIM in your phone connects to our own radios and our own core for data, calls and texts, the way any mobile service would. Lodestar Voice is not a mobile service at all. It is a SIP calling service, where members register a softphone or any SIP device to their account and calls travel over the internet as data, never touching the telephone network or a SIM.
They are kept apart on purpose. One is the cellular side, with its own radios and its own coverage. The other is a free calling service between members that runs over whatever internet you already have. Having one does not give you the other, and neither needs the other to work.
Lodestar Mobile
A SIM on our own core and our own licensed radio. Unlimited data, full calling in and out, texts, voicemail and VoLTE.
- Unlimited, uncapped data
- Calls to and from any ordinary phone number
- Texts and voicemail, both live
- VoLTE HD voice, free between members
- SIM today, eSIM on the way
- Dial 999 and your handset falls back to a national network
Lodestar Voice
A SIP calling service for members, entirely separate from Lodestar Mobile. Register a softphone or SIP device; calls travel over the internet, never the phone network.
- A SIP account, no SIM involved
- Free between Lodestar members, always
- Up to ten lines on a single account
- HD voice, hold music, 1471 and 1571 voicemail
- No calls to or from ordinary numbers yet
- Cannot reach 999 or 112
Getting on the network
A Lodestar SIM is a programmable card provisioned against our own subscriber database. Signal comes from our own small cells rather than a national mast grid. Calls in and out, texts, voicemail and VoLTE are all working today, and eSIM is on the way.
A SIM on our own core.
- →Provisioned against our own subscriber database, VectorCore HSS
- →Runs on our own licensed radio, held with Ofcom
- →Works in most unlocked 4G handsets, and we check your device against our network before you join
- →Data is unlimited and uncapped
- →Full calling in and out, texts and voicemail, all live
- →VoLTE HD voice over a dedicated bearer, open to every member
- →eSIM provisioning is coming for handsets that take a downloaded profile
Coverage comes from small cells, not a national grid.
We have no countrywide mast network and do not pretend to. Signal comes from our small cells: compact units that project a private slice of our own licensed radio across a room, a building or a yard. Where a cell is running you have Lodestar, and where one is not you do not. We will tell you which is which before you join.
The network grows the same way. You can run a small cell at home for solid indoor coverage, or host one for your area under the community node programme below. No cell talks to the core directly. Each one terminates on our security gateway first, so every site reaches us through an encrypted tunnel and nothing else.
Our radios still broadcast the test network code 999/74, while subscriber identities and our IMS home domain sit under 901/74 instead. That split is deliberate. Several handsets, iPhones in particular, will not register for VoLTE on a 999 network at all, so running the two side by side is what makes HD voice work across the fleet. It is a workaround rather than an end state, and it stays until our own allocation under Mobile Country Code 234 lands.
eSIM is coming.
A physical SIM is how you join today. eSIM turns that into a scanned code. Register on MyLodestar, tell us your postcode area, and we will let you know when profiles go live.
We run our own core.
Data rides our own Evolved Packet Core, with our own subscriber database, our own IMS voice platform, and our own radios on the ground. Base stations never reach the core directly. They terminate on a dedicated security gateway first, which puts another layer between the outside world and everything that matters. The whole stack runs on three bare metal servers at Telehouse North Two, colocated with Cilix, which keeps latency low for base stations and SIP users alike.
All of it has been built and paid for by us. Months of work, well over a thousand pounds of our own money, and no outside funding at any point.
Signalling walks the chain. Media does not. Every call leg is anchored on rtpengine at the edge, which is what makes calls work from behind a home router without asking you to configure anything, and what lets a wideband handset talk to a narrowband desk phone. The dashed path is audio, the solid one is control.
A note on honesty: our radios operate on the test network code 999/74, with subscriber identities and the IMS home domain under 901/74 so that handsets which refuse VoLTE on a 999 network will still register. Neither is our own allocation. We are working towards one under Mobile Country Code 234, and we will say so plainly on this page until it lands rather than pretend to be something we are not yet.
Live or planned. No pretending.
Dialling 999: Lodestar Mobile carries no 999 or 112 calls of its own. We do not advertise emergency support to the handset, so when you dial the emergency services your phone leaves Lodestar by itself and places the call over one of the national mobile networks, wherever one is in range. This is the opposite of Lodestar Voice, which answers the call with a recorded announcement instead. Always keep a separate, working means of contacting the emergency services.
Coverage grows when people host it.
If you have a rooftop, a unit, a hall or a high spot, you can host a Lodestar small cell and become part of the network. You own the hardware and hold your own Ofcom licence for the site. We handle the core, the configuration and the day-to-day running.
We have two more femtocells on the way and expect to offer them at around fifty pounds each, which is close to what they cost us. Terms are set out in our Hosted Infrastructure Agreement so everyone knows where they stand. Get in touch and we will talk through whether your location could carry a cell.
- 1You provide the siteA location with power and a decent internet connection for backhaul.
- 2You hold the licenceYour own Ofcom licence covers the cell, so ownership stays with you.
- 3We run the networkWe provision, monitor and maintain the node as part of Lodestar.
- 4Your area gets coveredLocal members connect through your cell, and the map grows by one more site.
A calling service for members. Not a phone line.
Lodestar Voice is a SIP calling service. You register a softphone, a desk phone or any SIP client to your Lodestar Voice account, and calls travel over the internet as data between members, staying entirely on our own platform. It is a separate product from Lodestar Mobile: it is not a mobile service, it does not use a SIM, and having one does not give you the other.
It does not reach the telephone network. You cannot call ordinary phone numbers, ordinary numbers cannot call you, and calls between Lodestar members are free. External SIP calling is something we are actively working towards, but there is no confirmed date and nothing to announce yet, so Voice is best understood as calling between members rather than a replacement for your phone line or your mobile.
Every line comes with hold music, HD voice between members, 1471 with call return, and a 1571 voicemail box recorded in a British voice rather than the American prompts the software ships with. One account carries up to ten lines, and you manage all of them yourself in MyLodestar.
Lodestar Voice cannot call 999 or 112. Dial an emergency number from a Voice line and our own platform answers it, plays a recorded announcement telling you that Lodestar does not carry emergency calls, and asks you to hang up and dial again from another telephone. That announcement is a warning, not a route to the emergency services, and no emergency call can be completed through Voice. Never rely on it in an emergency, and always keep a separate, working means of contacting them.
Sign up in about two minutes.
MyLodestar is your account with us, and it is free to open. It issues Lodestar Voice lines on the spot, with no waiting list and nothing provisioned by hand, up to ten lines on a single account. You can list yourself in the member phone book, or stay out of it, one line at a time. It also holds your place in the queue for a Lodestar Mobile SIM and for a community femtocell, so when those open we already know where you are. Calls between Lodestar members are free and always will be.
Read the limitations below before you sign up. Voice is an internal calling service for the community, and there are real things it cannot do.
Create your account
Open a MyLodestar account with an email address, then add a Voice line. We issue the extension and the password on the spot. One account holds up to ten lines.
Set up a SIP client
Any SIP client will do, on a phone, a laptop or a desk phone on your desk. There is nothing to install from us and no app to download.
Register and call
Point it at voice.lodestarnetworks.co.uk, use your extension as the username and the password from MyLodestar. Once it shows as registered, dial another member's extension and our own platform connects the call.
Once you are registered, there is more on the network than just other members. Calls between members run in HD voice, hold music plays when you put someone on hold, and these numbers work from any Lodestar Voice line.
Speaking clock
The time, read out in British English, on our own platform rather than someone else's.
Music lines
Twenty-one lines, each with its own track, levelled so none of them is louder than the rest.
Last caller
Hear who rang you last, read back in British English, with the date and time. Press 3 and we will put you straight back through.
Voicemail
Your own mailbox, set up with your line automatically. Every prompt is recorded in a British voice rather than the American ones the software ships with.
Radio
A live radio stream, piped straight down the call.
Open your MyLodestar account.
Free to open and free to keep. Voice lines are issued instantly, up to ten of them. You will be asked to confirm you have understood the limitations set out below, including that Lodestar Voice cannot reach the emergency services.