How was the experiment?

The experiment involved transmitting a 4G LTE signal from an orbiting satellite that actually acts as a space station, in the frequency range of the American operator AT&T in Hawaii. Nokia RAN communication technology is used to facilitate testing.

The signal transmitted from the AST satellite in low Earth orbit achieved impressive speeds of up to 10.3 Mbps. This speed is more than enough for tasks such as:

• video streaming,
• surfing on the Internet,
• mobile communication use.

In a preliminary test conducted by AST in April this year, a direct satellite link was used to make calls between Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone users in Texas and iPhone users in Japan.

Satellite Internet market is evolving

AST SpaceMobile has been diligently working on the direct satellite mobile communications project for several years. While they are not the only players in this arena, AST’s recent success demonstrates their success as other companies compete to transmit data from space.

• As early as 2020, the American company Lynk Global was able to send direct text messages via the Shannon satellite using ordinary cell phones.
• In subsequent tests in 2021, unmodified mobile phones successfully connected and exchanged data with the satellite, mistaking it for a standard terrestrial cellular base station.
• Lynk said the tests involved hundreds of people in the US, UK and Bahamas, and that the satellite communicated while flying over the respective regions.
• Amazon also plans to launch 83 satellites that offer similar capabilities for direct cellular communications in 2024 as part of Project Kuiper.

What is known about the BW3 satellite

AST emphasizes that their BlueWalker 3s (BW3) is a large commercial communications array with an area of ​​64.38 square meters. The company is proud to say that this is the largest satellite ever placed in low Earth orbit. The device operates according to the same 3GPP standard as terrestrial cellular networks.

AST CEO Abel Avelan states that their project aims to give residents in remote areas the ability to send text messages, make calls, browse the web, download files and even stream videos using signals transmitted from space.