Vodafone UK Beat Starlink with First Mobile to Mobile Video Call via Satellite
Mobile operator Vodafone UK today claims to have “beaten Elon Musk in the space race” by making the first mobile-to-mobile video call using a normal (unmodified) Smartphone and special satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) from partner AST SpaceMobile. This is essentially a space-based 4G and 5G mobile broadband service.
Just to recap. AST has spent the past few years developing and trialling the new platform, including via their prototype 1.5-ton BlueWalker 3 satellite (here), which orbits at an altitude of a little over 500km and features a huge 693-square-foot (64.4-square-meter) phased array antenna (here). The satellite was specifically designed for sending and receiving mobile signals between the space-based platform and regular mobile handsets on the ground.
The platform was originally developed with support from Vodafone and the pair recently signed a long-term commercial agreement (here), which will run until at least 2034. This will also support AST’s efforts toward launching a total of 100 similar satellites (BlueBirds) over the next few years (future models will be even larger and more capable).
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The aim is to make this service attractive for regular consumers (we suspect this may form part of a ‘global roaming’ style add-on for mobile plans, at extra cost), yet until now most of the real-world tests have been limited to voice calls and text messages.
However, in the latest test, Vodafone roped in UK astronaut, Tim Peake, and Group CEO, Margherita Della Valle – both situated at the mobile operator’s HQ in Newbury – to receive a video call from one of their engineers, Rowan Chesmer, who was standing in a mobile signal dead zone in the middle of Wales.
Margherita Della Valle said:
“Vodafone’s job is to get everyone connected, no matter where they are. Our advanced European 5G network will now be complemented with cutting-edge satellite technology. We are bringing customers the best network and connecting people who have never had access to mobile communications before. This will help to close the digital divide, supporting people from all corners of Europe to keep in touch with family and friends, or work, as well as ensuring reliable rural connectivity in an emergency.”
Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, said:
“This historic milestone marks another significant step forward in our partnership with Vodafone, a long-time investor in AST SpaceMobile and a key technology partner. Together, we have achieved several world firsts in space-based broadband connectivity, including the first-ever space-based voice call, the first-ever 4G download speed above 10 Mbps, and the first-ever 5G voice call. This latest achievement using our BlueBird satellites, takes us one step closer to our mission to eliminate connectivity gaps and make cellular broadband accessible to all.”
The UK Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, also added that he was “thrilled to see Vodafone leveraging satellite connectivity and 5G to help us plug coverage gaps and improve lives across the country“. But the success of all this may yet depend upon how much the service costs to add and its level of global availability.
Vodafone currently aims to conduct further tests this spring, before offering the first commercial direct-to-smartphone broadband satellite service across Europe from “later in 2025 and 2026” (it will be a gradual roll-out). But we do have to question the press release’s claim of having “beaten Elon Musk in the space race, by making the first mobile to mobile video call using satellites.”
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The reason for this is because Starlink’s (SpaceX) rival, Direct to Cell (DtC), service also demoed a live video call over its own LEO satellites and unmodified smartphones back in May 2024 (here), although admittedly both callers were standing right next to each other and that was in the USA, not Europe.
However, both platforms will face similar challenges, such as in terms of the need to deploy enough ground stations and to secure the necessary regulatory approvals, as well as the support of more mobile operators, for related radio spectrum across multiple countries. But the competition should hopefully help to ensure fairer pricing for consumers, governments and businesses.
The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, is already in the process of developing a new authorisation regime to support the new services from AST and Starlink, which should be ready during “early 2025“ (here). We should point out that other satellite operators, such as OneWeb (Eutelsat) and Amazon (Project Kuiper), have also been exploring the possibility of providing cellular services for regular smartphones.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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This is great but I imagine there will be a minimum spec for a phone to use the service. Does anyone know what that might be? If you look it up then all you get shown is info on traditional sat phones.
In the first sentence they said: “using a normal (unmodified) Smartphone”
It’s essentially a cell tower in low earth orbit which means the latency is low enough for a video call rather than the awkward guests who ‘joined by satellite’ in the 90s where they’d be answering the previous question.
Hopefully they’ll have enough bandwidth… But something tells me that this is likely to be a very slow service once it reaches anything like mass market 🙂
This will likely be an addition for areas not having ground network coverage only + oil rigs and maybe a domestic flights. Note that this must be using a slice of Vodafone’s 4G/5G frequency.
In fairness to Vodafone, this is a real win! Congratulations guys, would be great to have a non Elon option.
Starlink were temporarily authorised to do direct to cell in Florida and Texas during the last big hurricane they had there a few months back so it’s hard to imagine that Vodafone did the first ever mobile to mobile video call via a satellite. It’s all a play on words anyway and crafty marketing etc because of course, people have had starlink for some time now in the UK and have obviously made video calls via Starlink thus have made a mobile-to-mobile video call via satellite in the UK before Vodafone claims this stunt as a first. If we want to be technically correct (The best kind of correct) then in the UK they may possibly have been the first direct-to-cell mobile-to-mobile (yes I like hypens) video call using regular LTE calling. The actual thing (the end result) they achieved isn’t a first of course. Anyway, it’s a good thing I welcome having coverage when I wouldn’t have normally but perhaps you can all talk to each other and work things out before we add a trillion satellites in space for memes and streams?
Yet none of the networks seem to be able to manage decent coverage in your average town, maybe work on that first. My Town is full of dead spots on all networks. Even in Leeds City Centre I’ve found a few networks so congested I can barely load a webpage.
The dog in the video is called Odin, btw. First dog to participate in a two way video call from space with a mobile phone?
So alliances are getting clearer.
EEStarlink
Vodafone(and therefore Three after the merger)ATS
O2-Virgin – unclear yet? I guess going to use Starlink or maybe Amazons Kuiper?
“Tim Peake and Margherita Della Valle received a video call from one of their engineers standing in a mobile signal dead zone in the middle of Wales.”
Staggering PR fail on Vodafone’s part. They are actually admitting, even advertising, how their mobile network has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. Which we already know of course.
And should a Vodafone customer have the audacity to be MOVING while using 4G or 5G then forget your call and forget your data; you may as well go read a book instead. Which leads me to the most important question: Do LEO satellite connections improve on the age old dropped-calls-while-moving cellular handover problem? I hope so.
Perhaps. However I think everyone knows how bloody dire Vodafone’s coverage is, so this can only be seen as a win.