Last week a Vodafone engineer, Rowan Chesmer, somewhere in the middle of Wales and very much in a dead zone for cellular connectivity, used an AST SpaceMobile satellite to send a video call to Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle and British astronaut Tim Peake.
The demonstration led to some enthusiastic celebrations from AST themselves and Vodafone which, along with its overseas operations and partners, helps connect millions of cell-phone subscribers. The test proved that AST’s satellites can handle video calls to ‘ordinary’ and unmodified 4G and 5G handsets.
Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone, described the test as “[Allowing] us to close the last remaining gap and keep our customers connected wherever they are.”
Luxembourg-based industry consultant Peter Lindmark said the test could solve the many ‘dead spots’ in the UK and elsewhere and “connect the unconnected”.
Other experts asked legitimate questions as to how well a satellite would cope during heavy rain or snow, and whether the signals would pass through building walls. Signals will not be affected for ground delivery, said Vodafone)
Praise was given to AST, and digs at SpaceX’s Starlink in a Vodafone press release, which said: “As Margherita’s video call shows, the advantage of Vodafone working with AST SpaceMobile’s satellites is that more bandwidth is available so that other apps and services can be used. At the time of writing, other direct-to-phone satellite services only have enough bandwidth for voice calls and text messages. The AST SpaceMobile satellite that Vodafone used can provide faster mobile data speeds than other LEO-using services as it uses a technique called beamforming. Already used in WiFi, as well as wholly terrestrial 4G and 5G networks, this technique precisely directs radio signals from satellites to their intended destination. This not only helps increase speed, but also minimizes interference, increasing reliability.”
The news also emerged that AST has been granted a ‘Special Temporary Authority’ for two-way transmission tests over the US and using its local partners Verizon and AT&T. AST said: “This approval enables AST SpaceMobile’s first five commercial BlueBird satellites, operating in low Earth orbit today, with unmodified smartphones in AT&T and Verizon premium low-band wireless spectrum supporting voice, full data, and video applications, and other native cellular broadband capabilities, without the need of any specialized software or device support or updates.”
Finally, investment firm B Riley has upped its guidance to clients to a ‘BUY’ for AST shares, and a price target of $36 (currently AST share price is around $18.20). B Riley said: “We continue to see AST as the leader in the race to enable true D2D broadband connectivity to unmodified phones. This will not be a winner-take-all market, but the global telecommunications TAM is massive, with perhaps ASTS’ most visible competitor, SpaceX, still wrangling through power-related signal interference problems while concurrently navigating a dearth of spectrum.”
Advanced Television
