AST SpaceMobile, AT&T, Rakuten, and Vodafone report making first two-way cellphone call via satellite

[Jan]

First two-way cellphone call made via satellite

AST SpaceMobile has announced the successful completion of the first-ever two-way voice calls to unmodified smartphones using the BlueWalker 3 satellite.

AT&T spectrum was used to make a voice call from Midland in Texas to the Rakuten mobile network in Japan using a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone using AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 satellite.

 

[Johnatan56]

Based on this:

AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) Research Report by Transhumanica

AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) investment opportunity analysis by Transhumanica Research: independent in-depth report with 250+ references and a configurable valuation model.

transhumanica.com

latency is expected at 20ms or so.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASTSpaceMobile/comments/q6tqw8

From two years ago, someone compiled a post on it, stated that should be under 30ms latency, which meets the 5G 3GPP standard.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

how is this different from iridium or any other Drug Dealer Sat phone.

 

[neoprema]

Technology is awesome. The red-tape, fees, taxes and problems governments are going to strap onto it for anyone to use it...not so awesome. I can see this going the way of Starlink for us..

 

[neoprema]

how is this different from iridium or any other Drug Dealer Sat phone.

Its GSM, to a normal cellphone.

Satphones use a very high power antenna to send proprietary signal and require very clear line of sight. They operate i think around 1600Mhz and thus are also super-expensive.

This technology allows your run of the mill cellphone to do its thing - without a cell tower.

Imagine no impact of load-shedding because your connection is not dependant on a dead cellphone tower.

 

[Nerfherder]

Its GSM, to a normal cellphone.

Satphones use a very high power antenna to send proprietary signal and require very clear line of sight. They operate i think around 1600Mhz and thus are also super-expensive.

This technology allows your run of the mill cellphone to do its thing - without a cell tower.

Imagine no impact of load-shedding because your connection is not dependant on a dead cellphone tower.

Less towers is great but more Satellites is not necessarily better.

 

[neoprema]

Less towers is great but more Satellites is not necessarily better.

Yeah i do wonder what we're gonna do when we're more space-faring? How do you go off-world in a mass way with so many satellites but i guess their positions are known so self-guided navigation will cater for that.

 

[Happy Days]

All good, just don't go OOB!

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

but more Satellites is not necessarily better.

this, Space trash is already a problem will only get worse with every billionaire deciding to be Elon musk and launching more LEO satellites

 

[RaptorSA]

I wonder how they power those sats.... I'd be surprised if solar would be able to handle ad fully-fledged implementation.
That paper doesn't mention anything I could find.

 

[G.A.S]

I wonder how they power those sats.... I'd be surprised if solar would be able to handle ad fully-fledged implementation.
That paper doesn't mention anything I could find.

Solar is pretty much the only way to power satellites over the long term in the inner solar system.

Satellite PVs are significantly more efficient than your typical terrestrial PVs (due to no atmosphere and dust; and significantly better technology and materials), and space isn't much of a concern either when folded open.