(Credit: AT&T)
AST SpaceMobile is dropping hints about when it’ll start offering satellite connectivity to AT&T and Verizon customers.
In a Wednesday earnings call, the company said it plans on launching its first five commercial satellites during the “first half of September,” using a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX.
Assuming all goes well, AST SpaceMobile will then spend a “few months” activating the communication services on the commercial satellites before kicking off beta tests with AT&T and Verizon — two major investors in the company.
“After a few months of in-orbit service activation, this initial service for AT&T and Verizon beta test users will start with 5,600 cells across the country,” said CEO Abel Avellan.
The timeline suggests AST SpaceMobile might launch the beta service in December, giving AT&T and Verizon customers a way to receive a signal even when no cell tower is in sight.
Instead, AST SpaceMobile plans on delivering internet data through the company’s “BlueBird” satellites, which have been outfitted with large communication arrays to beam the cellular data to unmodified phones on the ground. In 2011, the company launched a prototype satellite, dubbed BlueWalker 3, which can beam download rates up to 17Mbps, power video calls, and even deliver the cell signal indoors.
Avellan added that the first five BlueBird satellites will supply “100%” coverage across the continental US. But don’t expect the signal to be consistent. The company previously said it needs to launch between 45 to 60 commercial satellites before it can offer continuous coverage in the US. So for now, AST SpaceMobile is marketing the upcoming satellite connectivity as “non-continuous.”
The other roadblock is the Federal Communications Commission, which needs to give full approval before AST SpaceMobile can offer the satellite services commercially.
Still, AST SpaceMobile says it’s already building the next 17 BlueBird satellites. The company plans on launching the first batch in Q1. “And depending on the launch configuration and the launch vehicle, it will be anywhere between four [satellites] per launch for the new larger Block 2s or eight per launch depending on the launch vehicles,” Avellan said.
The upcoming service is poised to compete with SpaceX’s effort to create a cellular Starlink network for smartphones. SpaceX plans on launching the service as soon as this fall with T-Mobile, first to enable text messages before rolling out support for internet data and voice calls.