TECH

Meet the startup that raised $110 million to make your mobile phone work anywhere 

Anyone who has ever been on a long trail or had the car broken down on the road knows that telephone connectivity, which many consider a certainty of daily life, can quickly disappear. Despite advances in technology, the distance the data signal can travel is still limited to that you are from a cell tower. AST & Science, Based in Midland, Texas, intends to use satellites to overcome these limitations. The company has just raised$ 110 million in a round led by UK mobile operator Vodafone and Japanese carrier Rakuten to launch a mobile broadband network, called SpaceMobile, equipped with satellites. They can connect to phones "anywhere on the planet - when you're flying in a plane, in a remote location, at sea-anywhere–" says the company's founder and CEO, Abel Avellan.
The company successfully tested its technology last year when it launched a satellite prototype called BlueWalker 1 in April(image above). The satellite successfully transmitted signals to the phones and demonstrated the company's abilities. With the new capital round, which raises its total revenue to $ 128 million, it could increase the production of the hundreds of satellites it plans to put into orbit, using a modular manufacturing approach to keep costs low.
AST is one of several companies that aims to place satellites in low Earth orbit to provide data. SpaceX, OneWeb, Amazon and others are building large mega-constellations to provide broadband internet directly to customers. Its target market is premium customers, taking advantage of the lower latency times provided by satellites to attract users away from broadband internet providers such as Comcast or AT & T.
On the other hand, AST targets a different market. Instead of trying to provide broadband internet services, which requires the construction of larger and higher cost satellites and expensive land infrastructure, the company seeks a partnership with mobile operators. For these providers, AST offers its customers the ability to use their existing devices in places of difficult connection, such as in the mountains or on a cruise. It is a model similar to existing satellite phone providers, such as Iridium, except that it does not require hardware of its own; customers can use the phones they already have.
AST is selling wholesale space signals to existing providers instead of trying to compete with them, explains Avellan. Its constellation will initially provide 4G signals, but expects to switch to 5G as soon as it has more satellites in operation. This allows your customers to provide services to more people without the need to build in prohibitively expensive areas.
This is the second incursion by the AST founder into the satellite world and is another step in his long history in the communications sector. After graduating from Venezuela, his homeland, he moved to Sweden and joined the telecommunications giant Ericsson as an engineer. A few years later, in 1999, he founded the satellite communications company Emerging Markets Communications, which provides high bandwidth data for video applications and other communications. He sold EMC in 2016 to global telecommunications company Eagle for$ 550 million.
Just out of that sale, he founded AST. His approach reflects his engineering background - he co-created several of the major technologies that the company is using on its satellites. ” He is a very talented technologist, " says commercial space analyst Chris Quilty.
Mobile service providers and e-commerce companies are paying attention, which is why companies such as Samsung NEXT, American Tower, Rakuten and Vodafone mentioned above are among those investing in the subject. ” We believe that SpaceMobile is in a unique position to provide universal mobile coverage, further improving our leading network in Europe and Africa –especially in rural areas or during a natural and humanitarian disaster, " said Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone in an official statement.
” It will not be an easy task, " Quilty says, because the company is looking for something that has never been tried before. It even reveals the importance of investor support: if the company succeeds in developing and operating its technology and has the capital available for it, it can reach a very large market.
That's part of Avellan's vision. Working with existing mobile networks to extend your reach, decrease the cost of obtaining new customers and provide extra services to premium customers. This has a significant impact on people able to access the internet where they could not before, because it was not economically feasible to reach them.
“We are creating a new market opportunity for existing systems,” says Avellan. "Allowing them to monetize their phones in places no one else can.”

Forbes