Vodafone says it aims to create a mobile network in space that would boost the signal of its 4G and 5G services back on earth.
The British mobile operator has invested $25 million in Texas-based AST & Science’s space-based network, known as SpaceMobile. Rakuten, American Tower, Cisneros and Samsung NEXT are also investors in the $125 million project.
Nick Read, CEO, Vodafone Group, said: “At Vodafone we want to ensure everyone benefits from a digital society – that no-one is left behind. We believe SpaceMobile is uniquely placed to provide universal mobile coverage, further enhancing our leading network across Europe and Africa – especially in rural areas and during a natural or humanitarian disaster – for customers on their existing smartphones.”
SpaceMobile plans to create a Low Earth Orbit, low latency, network that would help boost coverage in rural areas where signal strength is often low, and when there is a network failure.
It is not designed for high density areas where the signal is deemed to be enough.
The technology has already been tested by AST & Science, which launched its BlueWalker 1 satellite last April.
Earlier attempts by SES and Eutelsat to launch the direct-via-mobile service Solaris using DVB-SH failed, partly due to problems with the satellite.
