AT&T 's partnership with satellite supplier AST SpaceMobile to provide wireless Internet services from space will pose a challenge to Elon Musk's SpaceX, which struck a similar partnership with T-Mobile US two years ago. AST SpaceMobile shares rose sharply in after-hours trading after the announcement.

AT&T and AST SpaceMobile said in their announcement on May 15 that the two companies had conducted early testing before entering into a partnership. The two sides say the agreement to build a day-based broadband network will last until 2030. Chris Sambar, head of the AT&T network, will join AST SpaceMobile's board, a move that will deepen the partnership between the two sides since 2018.

Samgba said in an interviewCtrcrashteamracingswitchHis team is full of confidence in AST SpaceMobile's technology, and the performance of the BlueWalker 3 test satellite is satisfactory. He said the relationship between the two sides is shifting from "loose cooperation to strategic partnership".

About 5 billion mobile phones around the world are located in remote areas that cannot be covered by base stations, and wireless operators are competing to provide networking services for these phones. For consumers, such services are expected to provide Internet signals in areas such as rural roads and national parks. The usual marketing point is that they can complement standard wireless network coverage.

The new network will be compatible with ordinary mobile phones and will be easier to use than satellite phone services, which often require bulky dedicated devices. Shares of AST SpaceMobile, based in Midland, Texas, rose about 35% to 3% in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange.CtrcrashteamracingswitchAt .25 US dollars, AT&T 's share price has not changed much.

Scott Wisniewski, AST SpaceMobile's director of strategy, said in an interview that the company would send five satellites to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in July or August and would be launched by a SpaceX rocket.

He said the satellites would be implemented about three months after launch. Because of the high speed of orbiting the earth, the satellite can pass overhead several times a day to provide a relay signal. Vesnevsky says 45-60 satellites are needed to provide continuous services. The first markets include the United States and Japan.

"the technology of direct access to mobile phones from space can provide customers with networking services by complementing and integrating our existing mobile networks." "this agreement is another step based on our industry leadership and we will use emerging satellite technology to provide services to consumers and areas that have not been able to connect to the Internet in the past," Jeff McElfresh, director of AT&T operations, said in a statement.

Abel Avellan, founder, chairman and chief executive of AST SpaceMobile, said the company's partnership with AT&T "paves the way for unlocking the potential of ordinary smartphones to use space-based cellular broadband directly".

AT&T 's Samgba didn't say when to start providing services to customers. "this will be a complete data service, unlike any service currently available from low-Earth orbit satellites," Samgba said.

T-Mobile is working with Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (Space Exploration Technologies) low Earth orbit Service Star chain (Starlink). The operator said earlier that it was expected to launch a satellite phone service this year.

SpaceX has about 6000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, far ahead of other companies. Because the satellite is in orbit close to the earth's surface, communication signals can be transmitted quickly between the satellite and ground users.

In January, SpaceX launched its first satellites capable of providing mobile phone services. The service "will allow mobile phones to connect anywhere on the planet," Musk said in a post on social network X, formerly known as Twitter, but also said that due to technological constraints, "it is not very competitive with existing terrestrial cellular networks." In 2022, Apple launched an emergency satellite messaging function for iPhone. The user can send a distress message without a cellular signal.