ABI Research Blog

On September 19, 2023, AST SpaceMobile announced a historic milestone: the successful completion of the first-ever 5G connection for both voice and data transmission between an ordinary, unmodified smartphone and a space satellite. The company's engineers showcased this space-based 5G connectivity by initiating a call from Maui, Hawaii, United States, to a Vodafone engineer situated in Madrid, Spain. This remarkable feat was accomplished using AT&T's Band 5/850 Megahertz (MHz) spectrum and AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 (BW3) test satellite—the largest-ever commercial communications array deployed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).