A groundbreaking phone call occurred between Texas and Japan that could eventually help pave the way for a globally accessible satellite cellular network. AST SpaceMobile — the Texas-based satellite manufacturer — announced Tuesday that it has successfully routed a voice call between two standard smartphones directly through a BlueWalker 3 (BW3) satellite in low Earth orbit, a breakthrough that could improve global cellular connectivity in remote areas. . without access to cell towers.
AST SpaceMobile claims that this is “the first time anyone has achieved direct voice communication from space to everyday cellular devices.” The phone call was made from an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 in Midland, Texas, using AT&T mobile spectrum and connected to an iPhone used by Japanese tech giant Rakuten. Engineers from AT&T, Rakuten and UK-based telecommunications company Vodafone helped test it.
The BW3 satellite is powerful enough to pick up mobile phone signals from over 1,000 miles away
Normally, an everyday smartphone shouldn’t be able to communicate directly with satellites in space because they operate using different spectrums, and instead require phones to connect to nearby cell towers. AST SpaceMobile has managed to get around this in a number of ways, such as purposefully designing its network architecture to reflect the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) standard used by terrestrial cellular networks — and that and satellite BW3 is an absolute beast: at 693 square feet (just over 64 square metres), is the largest commercial communications array ever deployed in low Earth orbit, and is capable of picking up mobile phone signals from over 1,000 miles away thanks to its single 100,000 antenna element.
The technical efforts at play here mean that phones connected to the BW3 don’t need any hardware or software changes — no fancy apps, just the standard Samsung dialer. The companies involved did not disclose details regarding the performance, but an AT&T spokesperson confirmed it the edge The initial test call was made over 2G and that the next testing phases will include LTE, 4G and 5G.
The main goal of direct cell-to-cell communication is to improve global cellular access in remote areas that lack infrastructure such as cell towers. This also includes rural areas across the US that are struggling to achieve 3G wireless connectivity, let alone 5G. AST SpaceMobile has agreements in place with carrier networks besides AT&T, Rakuten and Vodafone, such as Bell Canada, Telefónica and Orange, which collectively have nearly 2 billion subscribers. We currently have no information as to how these carriers will include direct satellite connectivity within their existing services or when this tool may reach general consumers.
Other carriers have made similar partnerships to expand broadband access in rural areas using satellite. In 2021, Verizon announced that it was working with Amazon to add “cellular delivery solutions” to the e-commerce giant’s Project Kuiper system, which is expected to begin deployment in 2024. Elsewhere, smartphone services have developed satellite routing solutions based on On Messages like Apple’s Emergency SOS feature for iPhone 14.