We all know Starlink, but AST SpaceMobile is also an American company trying to offer direct-to-cell satellite connectivity. The Texas-based “extra-terrestrial” telecom company is the pioneer in the world that offers phone-home service from space. It’s now looking to provide 100% coverage of the US through a partnership with AT&T and Verizon before going global.
Founded in 2017, AST aimed to build the first and only space-based cellular network capable of connecting to any unmodified phone on Earth. Five years later, the firm made history with the first two-way phone call via space on a cell phone anyone can buy at the store thanks to a low-Earth-orbit satellite called Blue Walker 3 (BW3), launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September of 2022.
The historic phone call was made from Midland, Texas to Rakuten, Japan over AT&T’s spectrum on an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22. To further validate compatibility, AST engineers tested a variety of regular smartphones and devices that use SIM (subscriber identification module) cards and the results showed that all were able to exchange network information directly with the BW3 satellite without terrestrial towers.
In 2023, AST was able to achieve a 14-Mbps data stream on the BW3 satellite. Its speed was enough to stream 1080p high-definition video.
In 2024, the company launched an additional five satellites called BlueBird 1 through 5 aiming to establish a constellation of 168 satellites using the 40-MHz low-band frequency to achieve speeds up to 120 Mbps, putting it ahead of typical 4G speeds and even low-end 5G data rates, and even about 150,000 times faster than China’s recent Tiantong sat-to-cell satellites.
Each of the current BlueBird satellites unfolded in space to roughly 700 sq ft (65 sq m) and AST intends to build its next-generation satellites three times larger with 10 times the data capacity.
The company has partnered with AT&T and Verizon in the US and Bell Canada, Rakuten, Vodafone, and many others globally, aiming to give about 2.8 billion people around the world access to its satellite network as it grows.
With the idea of emergency services and civilians alike having the ability to stay in contact, the partnership is to remove dead spots where terrestrial cell towers can’t reach or don’t exist.
Image & source by AST SpaceMobile
