AT&T helped connect the first satellite 5G phone call

AST SpaceMobile — a cellular outer institution backed by AT&T — has placed a outer telephone implicit 5G, marking the “first ever” 5G transportation betwixt an unmodified smartphone and a outer successful space.

To behaviour the test, AST SpaceMobile utilized a Galaxy S22. It made the telephone connected September 8th, 2023, from a wireless dormant portion successful Maui, Hawaii, with its recipient located successful Madrid, Spain. AST SpaceMobile got the compartment awesome to its destination by leveraging its debased Earth orbit trial satellite, called BlueWalker 3 (BW3), and AT&T’s 5G spectrum. Vodafone, Nokia, and AT&T each validated the call.

There person been a fewer tests starring up to this latest milestone. In April, SpaceMobile routed its archetypal space-based telephone telephone connected AT&T’s 2G network. It aboriginal sent a 4G LTE awesome from abstraction that an mean telephone managed to prime up, portion besides touting 10Mbps download speeds. However, AST SpaceMobile says it has since breached that download velocity grounds by achieving a complaint of astir 14Mbps successful a abstracted test.

“Once again, we person achieved a important technological advancement that represents a paradigm displacement successful entree to information,” Abel Avellan, the CEO of AST SpaceMobile, says successful a statement. “Since the motorboat of BW3, we person achieved afloat compatibility with phones made by each large manufacturers and enactment for 2G, 4G LTE, and present 5G.”

While Apple rolled retired outer calling with the iPhone 14 and T-Mobile is moving connected satellite connectivity with SpaceX’s Starlink, AST SpaceMobile is trying to propulsion the boundaries of space-based telephone calls by leveraging 5G speeds. The institution plans connected launching 5 commercialized BlueBird satellites successful the archetypal 4th of adjacent year.