Vodafone is prepared to go head-to-head this year against Elon Musk’s Starlink in the ‘battle for space connectivity’. AST SpaceMobile (AST) connectivity for the UK and the rest of Europe is likely to start later in 2025.
Vodafone is currently using five AST SpaceMobile satellites for its test phone calls but AST will expand its fleet during 2025 and 2026. Vodafone has been an investor in AST since 2019 and has a commercial agreement in place which runs until 2034. The Vodafone agreement extends to many overseas territories and nations.
Vodafone’s CEO, Margherita Della Valle, has made a call using the technology to an engineer in a remote mountain region of Wales “which had never had a phone signal”. She said: “No one today offers the service that has been designed with AST.” She explained that thanks to AST and her Vodafone signals nobody would be without a signals wherever they lived or worked.
Della Valle and British astronaut Tim Peake, in an AST video discussion, talked about the video call, made using normal 4G/5G smartphones and satellites that will allow multiple users in areas of no mobile coverage to make and receive video calls, access the Internet and use online messaging services.
The breakthrough deal will make the UK the first to connect calls to standard cellular handsets via satellites. The AST technology means that signals will be switched automatically between today’s mast and towers and the overhead satellites.
AST, in its statement, listed the benefits, saying:
- Historic first space-based video call in Europe, made by Vodafone engineer to Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle.
- Mobile broadband directly to unmodified smartphones supporting voice, full data and video applications, and other native cellular capabilities, without the need of any specialized software or device support or updates.
- Powered by AST SpaceMobile’s groundbreaking BlueBird satellites, the largest commercial phase arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit, this is a giant leap toward universal connectivity.
