Tag Archives: AST SpaceMobile

Satellite News June 2026

FCC Approves AST SpaceMobile Constellation. The FCC approved an application from AST SpaceMobile to launch an additional 248 low-orbit satellites to deliver mobile service using 700 MHz and 800 MHz spectrum. These is a premium spectrum for this use since it carries further and penetrates clouds and storms better than higher frequencies. A year ago, the FCC gave the company permission to test direct-to-device connectivity using Band 14 spectrum, which is 700 MHz spectrum that had previously been reserved for public safety and first responder emergency use.

AT&T is Looking for Multiple Partners for D2D. AT&T Chairman and CEO John Stankey said recently that the company is looking at additional partners other than its current partnership with AST SpaceMobile for offering direct-to-device cellular services. He noted that SpaceX should have better capacity after it purchased spectrum from EchoStar. He also noted that Amazon will be a player when it completes the acquisition of Globalstar in 2027. Stankey noted that he is not interested in helping the D2D satellite companies disrupt the terrestrial satellite business, and that he believes that D2D is an alternate service that makes the most sense where cell networks don’t reach.

UK Launches D2D Service. The UK became the first country in Europe where a cellular company is offering D2D service for smartphones that is integrated into normal cellular service without the need for a special phone or a separate app. Virgin Media O2 uses the Starlink constellation and licensed 1800 MHz spectrum to offer an add-on service. Virgin customers can add satellite cellular service for £3 per month or can get the service for free with premium cellular packages. The initial service offers messaging and data, and works automatically in areas where Virgin doesn’t have good cell coverage.

This action in the UK is prompting the European Union to accelerate its effort to finalize spectrum for D2D service. The EU’s current spectrum plans include using 2 GHz spectrum, which is prized by LEO satellite companies, but Starlink and Amazon Leo are worried about current EU plans to allocate most of this spectrum to European satellite companies.

SpaceX IPO. In preparation for the SpaceX IPO on Nasdaq, the company announced that it had $13 billion in losses since the beginning of 2023. In 2025, the company had almost $18.7 billion in revenue but had an overall loss of $4.9 billion. The recent losses were driven by xAI, the company’s artificial intelligence venture that was founded in 2023.

The SpaceX IPO (SPCX) sold 556 million shares at a price of $135 on June 12. On the day when trading opened, the price started at $150 per share and closed at $160.95 at the end of the first trading session. The stock climbed to as much as $216 per share before ending around $190 per share yesterday.

Blue Origin Disaster. Amazon’s space ventures suffered a setback when the heavy-duty New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad in late May at the Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This will likely slow the launch of Amazon Leo, as this rocket was scheduled to carry 48 satellites into space. This also probably delays the company’s planned moon mission. The FCC had recently granted Amazon a requested delay in meeting the dates for activating the broadband satellite constellation.

100 Million Starlink Subscribers? New Street Research predicted that Starlink could reach 100 million subscribers by 2034. The prediction is based on the increasing number of satellites in the Starlink constellation and the technical improvements that will be introduced with the next generation of V3 satellites. For Starlink to reach that many subscribers will likely require the company to compete in urban or suburban areas with lower prices.

Satellites in the News

It seems like there is daily news concerning satellites used for broadband and telecommunications. Following are a sampling of some of the recent announcements.

Starlink Outage. Starlink experienced a worldwide 2.5-hour network outage on July 23 that was blamed on “key internal software services that operate the core network”. This raises questions about using satellite broadband for mission-critical uses, such as for military field operations.

T-Mobile Satellite Texting. T-Mobile has been plastering the airwaves with ads that tout the ability of T-Mobile customers to use its satellites to send text messages from remote locations. The service is available free to T-Mobile cellular and broadband customers and is available to others for $10 per month. T-Mobile enabled the service for free to everybody in the Kerr County, Texas area after the recent flooding, and the company said it would do the same for future disasters. The company says that by the end of the year, 911 texting will be available to all cellphone customers in the U.S., regardless of their subscribed carrier.

Project Kuiper. The company is now in the deployment phase of its satellite constellation that will compete with Starlink. The latest launch of 27 satellites brought the number of deployed satellites to 102. The company has scheduled 80 more launches and believes it can begin offering some commercial services by the end of this year. The first planned constellation will consist of 3,236 satellites.

Echostar. The company announced a deal with MDA Space to launch 200 satellites that will provide cellphone service from satellites by 2029. The satellite constellation would use Echostar’s existing 2 GHz AWS-4 spectrum, which they hope will justify keeping the spectrum.

AST SpaceMobile. The company has asked the FCC to launch 243 additional satellites by 2028 that would provide cellular service in direct competition with T-Mobile (and possibly Echostar). The new satellites have a large antenna array of 223 square meters.

New Regulations. The FCC voted on August 7 to accelerate the licensing process for new proposed satellite launches. This was done to keep pace with the explosive growth of the space economy. This implies even more satellites in low orbits, making the space increasingly crowded. As of July 2024, there were over 11,000 satellites in space, with over 10,000 that are active. There are worldwide plans to have as many as 100,000 satellites in orbit by 2030, the vast majority in low-orbit space.

Spectrum. The FCC is in the process of considering four new spectrum bands for satellites. This includes spectrum from 12.7-13.25 GHz, 42-42.5 GHz, 51.4-52.4 GHz, and the “W-band” that includes various ranges including 92.0-94.0 GHz, 94.1-100 GHz, 102.0-109.5 GHz, and 111.8-114.25 GHz. Altogether this is over 200,000 Megahertz of spectrum. The FCC is also considering increasing the power limits on some of the spectrum, which would greatly increase bandwidth utilization. There are some concerns about overuse of some of the proposed bands. For example, meteorologists are warning about overallocation of spectrum in the 52 GHz band.

BEAD Grants. It seems obvious with announcements from some state broadband offices that the amount of the BEAD grants allocated to satellite broadband will increase significantly. There should be some pronouncements coming of grant awards within a month or so, depending on any bottleneck at the NTIA when it tries to process BEAD grants from all states at nearly the same time.

Satellites Directly to Cellphones

AT&T and satellite company AST SpaceMobile announced a partnership to provide satellite cellular service directly from satellites to cellphones. This will provide a service that is much needed for the billions of remote users who are not in the range of a cell tower.

This is an emerging industry that is still being referred to be different acronyms. Direct-to-Device, or D2D seems to be emerging as a popular term. The FCC has been calling this Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS). Others have been referring to this as Direct-to-Cell Phone.

AST offers a unique satellite technology that is far different than what can is used for broadband satellites like the ones being deployed by Starlink. The AST satellites have a large surface area which provides the ability to shape the signal to reach cellphones and to receive the signal back directly from a phone.

The company claims that the large satellites will be able to process up to one million simultaneous calls. The satellites will also be able to provide some broadband capability. AST is also using both low- and mid-band frequencies to increase connectivity options to and from users. Backhaul will likely be accomplished through links to AT&T ground stations.

The first AST launch will include five satellites in July or August that will be operational in about three months after launch. The satellites will be circling the globe at a high speed, and initial customers will only be able to make calls when the satellites are overhead. The company needs at least 45 satellites to provide constant connectivity, and over time, will likely keep adding satellites to improve overall capacity.

There are a lot of other players interested in pursuing the lucrative market that could include as many as 5 billion customers worldwide for folks who live, work, or travel to remove places. Here in the U.S., there are still huge parts of rural America with terrible cellular coverage.

  • Apple started the race by providing links directly from satellites to devices in 2022 when it announced that the iPhone 14 had the capability of connecting to Globalstar satellites for emergency text messages. Apple has invested more than $450 million to help Globalstar upgrade its ground stations.
  • Later in 2022, SpaceX announced a partnership with T-Mobile to also allow emergency texting. SpaceX had previously acquired Swarm in 2021 to try to develop the technology.
  • In early 2023, Qualcomm announced that its Snapdragon chip could connect directly to the Iridium satellite network to relay emergency text messages.
  • Lynk Global is working on constructing a fleet of satellites. The company has three test satellites in orbit. Lynk is collaborating with over 40 worldwide cellular carriers.
  • MediaTek has developed a satellite-compatible chipset that can connect to a Bullitt platform to use high-orbit GEO satellites from Inmarsat and Echostar.
  • Huawei and China Telecom have developed emergency calling and are working to deploy a LEO satellite constellation.
  • Deloitte predicted at the end of last year that 200 million smartphones will be sold in 2024 that contain the capability of connecting directly to a satellite.

There is a lot of demand for seamless cellular connectivity. People who travel around the world get frustrated by cellphones that only work in some countries. People who work daily in rural areas are frustrated as they move in and out of cell coverage. The ability to provide cellphone broadband could bring Internet connectivity to billions of people who are still not able to connect to an ISP. This service could also provide connectivity to remote sensors and other devices located out of reach of terrestrial networks.

This is going to be an interesting market, and it’s likely to be a huge one. It’s not unexpected to see AT&T jump into the fray to chase a huge new revenue stream.

Starlink Promising Satellite Cellular Service

Starlink recently launched a new webpage that advertises the future ability to deliver text, voice, and data to 4G cell phones via satellite.

The texting service is supposed to be available in 2024 with voice and data coming in 2025. The service will require a user to have a view of the open sky. I would also guess that a user will have to be stationary and not in a moving vehicle. The service is likely going to be aimed at people who spend a lot of time outdoors, in places out of reach of cell towers. There is no talk yet about price, but this seems like a premium service and will probably be priced accordingly.

T-Mobile’s service will be able to connect through any of its many satellites, and reports have said that speeds will be relatively slow, at perhaps only a few Mbps.

Starlink says that users of the service will be able to connect to users in cellular networks that participate in the program. The initial list of network partners includes T-Mobile in the U.S., Rogers in Canada, Optus in Australia, One NZ in New Zealand, Kodi in Japan, and SALT in Switzerland.

There is already an early version of satellite texting. Apple provides texting to 911 through a satellite connection to those using an Apple 14  or newer iPhone. The text connection to 911 is slow and takes about 15 seconds to complete a transaction. The service allows very limited follow-up texts between public safety and the person initiating the 911 call. Apple is providing this service for free today but will eventually likely charge for using it.

AT&T claims to have made the first broadband connection with an unmodified cell phone and a satellite in September. The company used AT&T’s 5G spectrum and a Samsung Galaxy S22 to connect a caller from a dead cellular zone in Maui, Hawaii to one in Madrid, Spain. This test was done in conjunction with AST SpaceMobile. The first test achieved a download speed to the phone in Maui of 10 Mbps, but AST has subsequently been able to boost the speed to 14 Mbps. AST plans to launch five BlueBird satellites in the first quarter of 2024 to support the cellular satellite effort.

It’s unlikely that any of these services are going to be competing with mainstream cell phone connectivity. The speeds will be slower, and the satellite constellations will not be equipped to process the amount of data associated with normal cellphone service. There is no need to pay extra to use a satellite connection for anybody in reach of a cell tower or a WiFi connection.

I’m not sure if most people appreciate how much of the land mass of the U.S. has little or no cell service. Practically every county I’ve worked in has large dead cellular zones. Providing even rudimentary cell coverage in remote areas is a valuable new service for the many people who work in remote places. I can picture that farmers, park rangers, and anybody who spends a lot of time in unconnected areas will want this service as soon as it is available. I envision the satellite companies and cellular companies generating good revenue while filling this needed market niche.