The technology described herein is directed towards a transcoder with bypass capabilities that can be used to couple non-terrestrial network satellites to
user equipment (UEs), including by decoding and reencoding data packets at the packet level for existing Satcom interface satellites. A metasurface (reconfigurable intelligent surface, or RIS) redirects signals from the
satellite to a
satellite radio frequency (RF) interface of the transcoder, with the transcoder also coupled by a UE RF interface to a UE, such as a computing device or cellphone. For a Satcom
satellite, the transcoder converts, at the packet level, satellite-originating signals to UE-compliant signals, and converts UE-originating signals to Satcom-compliant signals. For direct-to-device communications, transcoder conversion is bypassed. Various additional functions facilitate such satellite service, including via
frequency conversion, doppler manipulation, a
repeater, frequency
equalization / negative-slope compensation and RIS-related conversion in both the receive mode and transmit mode of the RIS can be used.