Verizon Enlists AST SpaceMobile to Kill Off Its US Dead Zones

Verizon has found a place for space on its coverage map. Today, the carrier that previously declined to follow AT&T and T-Mobile in signing deals for satellite smartphone roaming inked its own deal with AT&T's partner AST SpaceMobile.

The partnership, announced Wednesday by AST without a corresponding press release from Verizon, will have the carrier commit $100 million to help that startup provide backup connectivity from low Earth orbit via a fleet of satellites it has not yet launched.

"This new partnership with Verizon will enable AST SpaceMobile to target 100% coverage of the continental United States on premium 850MHz spectrum with two major US mobile operators," AST Chairman and CEO Abel Avellan says in a press release that also quotes a Verizon executive who says this will serve as a backstop to Verizon’s network in dead zones. 

"By entering into this agreement with AST, we will now be able to use our spectrum in conjunction with AST’s satellite network to provide essential connectivity in remote corners of the US where cellular signals are unreachable through traditional land-based infrastructure," says Srini Kalapala, AST's SVP of technology and product development at Verizon.

It's AST's second partnership with a US carrier. In 2018, AT&T kicked off a collaboration that earlier this month led to it signing a commercial deal with AST that will run through 2030. Their work to date has included demonstrations with AST's BlueWalker 3 prototype satellite of voice calling and 5G data; AST's announcement of that test cited 14Mbps download speeds but did not mention uploads or latency.

At a conference in Washington, D.C., in March, AT&T network head Chris Sambar said this would allow for backup connectivity and "true broadband" on existing phones, possibly as a free benefit on premium plans and an extra-cost option otherwise. 

Asked if Kalapala’s “essential connectivity” phrasing meant Verizon wasn’t ready to market AST’s coverage as something akin to today’s mobile broadband, spokeswoman Karen Schulz pointed to current “technological and capacity constraints” on satellites. 

“There is a technical roadmap to more robust connection services in conjunction with satellite services, and we see those services evolving and improving over time,” she wrote in an email.

AST, however, first has to get commercial Bluebird satellites into low Earth orbit, a capital-intensive proposition. That was supposed to happen in the second quarter of this year, but in April the company said production delays would push that launch back to the third or fourth quarter. Speaking alongside Sambar at that Satellite 2024 show in D.C., Avellan said AST would need 45 to 60 satellites in orbit to cover the US. 

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T-Mobile, meanwhile, announced in August 2022 that it would team up with SpaceX's Starlink to offer satellite connectivity—at first messages only, with voice and data coming later—to almost all phones on its terrestrial network. SpaceX launched the first set of Starlink satellites capable of direct-to-cell service in January. Last week, it demonstrated a video call via Starlink on what it described as "unmodified mobile phones."

The one satellite-roaming option already commercially available, however, provides only emergency backup messaging: the Globalstar-relayed service that Apple provides as “Emergency SOS via satellite” on its iPhone 14 and 15 series. 

In March, the Federal Communications Commission eased all of these efforts at providing satellite roaming to phones by approving a regulatory framework that lets a satellite operator team up with a wireless carrier to obtain access to some of the carrier’s terrestrial spectrum.

Editors’ Note: We updated the post with a comment from Verizon.