TAMPA, Fla. — AST Space Mobile announced Sept. 19 that its Blue Walker 3 test satellite, which has been in orbit for a year, recently relayed its first 5G call to a regular smartphone in the cell phone dead zone.
Scott Wisniewski, chief strategy officer at AST SpaceMobile, said an engineer with a Samsung Galaxy S22 cell phone connected to a satellite near Hana, Hawaii, on Sept. 8 and was connected to another engineer in Spain for nearly two hours. They were able to chat for a minute.
The direct-to-device startup also announced that it achieved download speeds of around 14 megabits per second in separate tests. This surpassed his 10 Mbps speed he recorded on 4G in June.
“We believe BlueWalker 3 allows for continued enhancements,” Wisniewski said. space news “And we expect even more performance with our first five commercial satellites.”
AST SpaceMobile recently secured funding to launch these five Block 1 BlueBird satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early next year.
Each Block 1 BlueBird weighs 1,500 kilograms, the same size as a BlueWalker 3, and five allow for intermittent connectivity for initial device monitoring services.
AST SpaceMobile is seeking funding to build a more powerful BlueBird that is twice its size. About 90 of his BlueBirds are needed for the global 5G service, which allows terrestrial mobile network partners to connect subscribers beyond cellphone towers.
The 5G test used US telecommunications company AT&T’s radio spectrum, which was received by BlueWalker 3’s 64 square meter phased array antenna, the largest commercial antenna deployed in LEO. The satellite then transmitted a signal to Vodafone’s terrestrial network in Spain.
AT&T is seeking permission to lease terrestrial frequency in the United States on a commercial basis to AST SpaceMobile.
Texas-based AST SpaceMobile and other Direct-to-Device players are also awaiting a framework from the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the emerging industry.
Virginia-based direct-to-device communications venture Lynk Global launched commercially in Palau and the Cook Islands earlier this year using spectrum from local communications partners.
Lynk currently has three pizza-box-sized LEO spacecraft and 5,000 satellites that will initially provide lower-bandwidth services (such as text messaging and emergency alerts) than AST SpaceMobile. It is part of a constellation of
At the other end of the Direct-to-Device market, satellite operators such as Globalstar and Iridium Communications are developing businesses that use satellite spectrum to reach next-generation smartphones.
Panels at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris last week offered widely differing views on how fast this market will grow.
Lynk CEO Charles Miller suggested the DTC market could reach $1 billion in annual revenue within five years.
Susie McBride, Iridium’s chief operating officer, said her experience in providing communications for specialized cell phones suggests that it will take “a decade” for the market to reach this level.
