AST SpaceMobile’s “BlueWalker 3” satellite successfully deployed on November 10th, unfolding to its 693-square-foot expanse, the company said this week. “BlueWalker 3” is a test version for AST SpaceMobile’s planned 168-satellite constellation to offer wireless service to smartphones, possibly including Apple’s iconic iPhones, worldwide.
Todd Shields and Scott Moritz for Bloomberg News:
“Every person should have the right to access cellular broadband, regardless of where they live or work,’’ Abel Avellan, chief executive officer of AST SpaceMobile, said in a news release. “Our goal is to close the connectivity gaps that negatively impact billions of lives around the world.”
AST SpaceMobile partners include AT&T Inc., which sees the possibility of a simple way to connect customers in remote locales that lack cell coverage.
“We’re building a suite of services that look exactly like wireless services coming off a terrestrial network, only it’s service from the satellites,” AT&T Chief Executive Officer John Stankey said in an interview with Bloomberg News before the satellite unfolded. “You don’t want to change anything about the phone. You want it to operate the same way.’’Direct-to-satellite phone service has been a mostly unfulfilled promise dating back to the 1990s. Now carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile US Inc., which is teaming up with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., are about to give it another go.
Direct-to-satellite proponents see two opportunities. They plan to offer coverage when the world’s estimated 5 billion mobile phones stray from cell coverage areas. And they expect to offer service in places with no nearby cell signal at all, such as in remote mountains or far out at sea. Industry-wide revenue for such connectivity could reach $30 billion by 2035, or about 3% of total industry revenue, according to GSMA, a mobile industry body.
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s video of the launch of AST SpaceMobile’s “BlueWalker 3” direct-to-cell test satellite into earth orbit from Cape Canaveral on September 10, 2022:
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