Space based cellular broadband network ?

[BearFBI]

I just found out about this today. 

https://ast-science.com/spacemobile/

There's a company planning on making a sattelite phone constellation simmaler to Spacex Starlink but it works with EXISTING mobile phones through 3G, 4G AND 5G. 

I have many questions. At first I thought this was fake. How is it possible to send 4G signal from a sattelite in space to a cell phone without cell towers. Well turns out it is. This company is 100% legit and Vodafone even offered to help out. 

AST-Mobile will be GLOBAL cell phone service through sattelites that don't require any new hardware other than a SIM card. 

I won't belive it untill I see it. Apparently their testing the first sattelite out sometime during the end of 2021 and by 2023 we will have coverage in over 49 countries. 

Now I am not sure if their launching their own service or just providing "space towers" to existing cell carriers.

Whatever their doing its pretty neat.

[BearFBI]

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@stevenanto wrote:

I might be wrong but I believe that not too long ago Elon Musk wanted to provide internet and phone service through satellites to remote/third world communities. 

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Yeah and he did so successfully. His starlink service is all over the news. Didnt you hear ?

Earlier in this thread I was talking about how im seeing everyone close to my city with Elon Musk's starlink satellites on their roof.

His goal definity was possilble considering their falcon 9 reusability.

[stevenanto]

I might be wrong but I believe that not too long ago Elon Musk wanted to provide internet and phone service through satellites to remote/third world communities. 

[BearFBI]

Found even MORE information. Apparently their being funded by Rakuten, Vodafone, AT&T, American Tower, and Samsung.

I have quite high faith in this. They have over 1 thousand patents for the technology that works with existing cell phones and LOTS of money and funding to make it happen. 

Also according to the AST CEO and Rakuten CTO the initial testing has been successful and 2021 will be another year of testing untill their first phase is launched. 

[BearFBI]

Oh got some more information.

"SpaceMobile is being designed to become an extension of land cellular networks to fill coverage gaps and enable connectivity everywhere. ​AST will sell SpaceMobile airtime to mobile network operators under a wholesale business model. The operator will, in turn, offer expanded and/or new connectivity plans to ​its subscribers."

"We are designing the network so mobile subscribers will only need one click to stay connected, without any additional intervention or hardware, as they move between cell towers and SpaceMobile."

Still dosent stop NVMO's from getting acsess to their network and setting up shop in Canada. Lol mabey dotmobile will sign a network agreement with them. I wonder what their wholesale rates are, I hope there not expensive.

[BearFBI]

@CFPartDeux Total Game changer. The future is looking interesting.... 

With Spacex Starlink Beta rolling out and all these other sattelite based services, there's no excuse that you can't get a good broadband connection anymore even if you are living far from anything. 

In the outskirts of my City I already see people's houses with Starlink Dishy's on the roof.

No place in the world does not have acsess to high-speed internet now that these sattelite constellations are expanding. 

Not having acsess to affordable high-speed internet is a term from the past now... 

[CFPartDeux]

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@BearFBI wrote:

Now I am not sure if their launching their own service or just providing "space towers" to existing cell carriers.

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From reading the info on their site, it APPEARS that their main mission is to fill the gaps in existing coverage. I'm sure that most of the US is fairly well covered, but up here we have some rather LARGE portions of this country with zero coverage. Just think how this could be a game changer, for someone that's lost and/or injured, out in the bush somewhere, where there's currently no coverage. 👍