Months after launching into orbit, AST SpaceMobile's first BlueBird satellites have successfully powered a video call between two unmodified smartphones on the ground. US-based AST tested the technology in the UK with Vodafone,

Last week a Vodafone engineer, Rowan Chesmer, somewhere in the middle of Wales and very much in a dead zone for cellular connectivity, used an AST SpaceMobile s

Britain's Vodafone mobile network successfully tested a direct-to-smartphone satellite phone service as part of an effort to get around the long-standing problem of weak or "no signal" that plagues mo

Vodafone claims to have made the world’s first space video call using normal 4G/5G smartphones and commercial satellites from space-based mobile broadband network provider AST SpaceMobile. The call was made using Vodafone’s new space-to-land gateway,

AST SpaceMobile has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted the company Special Temporary Authority (STA) authorising testing ser

Vodafone has made what it calls “the world’s first” satellite video call using a standard smartphone, in a test of a system it says will provide mobile broadband service to 4G and 5G phones without dedicated satellite hardware. The service, using satellites from SpaceX rival AST SpaceMobile, is expected to launch in Europe before the end of 2025.

Vodafone partnered with AST SpaceMobile to connect its BlueBird satellites to the mobile operator’s terrestrial network through a space-to-land gateway.