5G race to space picks up (network) speed

Companies like Bullitt and Apple have already proven that it’s possible to connect regular smartphones directly to satellites. However, so far such services center around slow-speed applications like text messaging.

AST SpaceMobile is promising to change all that. During its recent quarterly conference call, company officials suggested that its satellites would support smartphone connections that are just as speedy as those available from terrestrial 5G networks.

However, the company isn’t yet offering any firm details. And investors aren’t happy about that.

“While the company itself is excited to share that initial test results indicate that … signal strength is sufficient to achieve 5G cellular broadband connections, we believe this message could have been made more clearly,” wrote the financial analysts at B. Riley Securities in their assessment of AST SpaceMobile’s latest quarterly conference call.

Indeed, the startup’s stock dropped 20% late last week after the call with investors. It’s currently trading at around $4.50 per share, down about 50% from its initial public offering in 2021.

“We believe it is a shame that investors focused on the uncertain messaging,” added the B. Riley Securities analysts.

Probably 30 Mbit/s

According to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the call, AST SpaceMobile officials promised that the company would release the full details of its ongoing phone-to-satellite testing in the near future.

“In due course, we plan to announce results in conjunction with our telco partners,” said CEO Abel Avellan.

AST SpaceMobile has agreements with Rakuten in Japan and Vodafone in Europe. In the US, AT&T has emerged as a vocal supporter of the company. That’s likely because AST SpaceMobile has made it clear in FCC filings that it intends to offer satellite-based Internet services to AT&T’s FirstNet customers. FirstNet is an independent arm of the US government charged with offering wireless services to first responders like police officers and firefighters via AT&T’s network.

During SpaceMobile’s conference call, Avellan said several times that “we will be able to get to 4G and 5G speeds. We have achieved that.” But he did not elaborate.

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