Vodafone Invests in SpaceMobile – 4G and 5G via LEO Satellites

Vodafone has invested $25m (£19.5m) into Texas-based AST & Science, which is building a new set of low latency Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites under their “SpaceMobile” project. The constellation would make it possible to connect to your Smartphone via 4G and 5G directly from LEOs in space (instantly covering poorly served areas).

The ability to provide connectivity at 4G or 5G based mobile broadband speeds everywhere on the planet – on land, at sea and in flight – to existing devices (no special satellite modem/kit required) would be a significant achievement, although in order to deliver the best possible coverage you tend to need many hundreds or even thousands of LEO spacecraft and that can make deployment both very costly and complex.

The technology at work here is said to be “highly proprietary, and exactly how it works cannot be disclosed.” The AST would only say that their engineers and space scientists have designed an “entirely new form factor and deployment method that significantly reduce the time and costs associated with manufacturing, launching and operating satellites.”

Interestingly though we note that users will NOT require a “clear line-of-sight” to receive the signal because their technology “enables access to SpaceMobile from any location – even inside – regardless of visibility to the satellites on orbit.” We take that to mean that their LEOs will be beaming signals down to land using existing mobile bands (doing that consistently from an orbit of 500 miles away is no mean feat).

Abel Avellan, AST & Science Chairman and CEO, said:

“SpaceMobile will be particularly transformative to the growing US$1 trillion annual global mobile market because it will eliminate the coverage gaps faced by today’s five billion mobile subscribers moving in and out of connectivity every day. It will also help the world’s most under-served communities to access the latest mobile services much sooner than predicted, helping more people to access the digital economy.”

Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone Group, said:

“At Vodafone we want to ensure everyone benefits from a digital society – that no-one is left behind. We believe SpaceMobile is uniquely placed to provide universal mobile coverage, further enhancing our leading network across Europe and Africa – especially in rural areas and during a natural or humanitarian disaster – for customers on their existing smartphones.”

Under the new strategic partnership Vodafone has also agreed to contribute technical, operational and regulatory expertise in support of the global deployment of SpaceMobile. Overall the project has now attracted a total capital investment of $128 million (Japan’s Rakuten Inc. is the other major investor), although it enters an increasingly crowded market with Amazon, Facebook, SpaceX and OneWeb among others all launching or preparing to launch significant LEO broadband networks.

AST has already launched their first test satellite called BlueWalker 1 on a PSLC-C45 rocket from the Datish Dhawan Space Centre in India (1st April 2019), which sits at an altitude of about 500 miles. On the CubeSat classification table this satellite was designated as a 6U, which are normally about 10×20×30cm or 12×24×36cm in size.

Assuming all goes well then a further two satellites (BW 2 and 3) are due to follow BlueWalker 1 this year. Eventually it’s hoped that SpaceMobile will become an extension of land cellular networks to fill coverage gaps and enable connectivity everywhere (airtime will be sold to mobile operators under a wholesale business model).

Mind you there’s still that growing concern about the rising level of “space junk” populating low earth orbit, particularly from astronomers who fear disruption to their science and the threat from possible collisions.