AST Space Mobile said on September 19 that its Blue Walker 3 test satellite, which has been in orbit for a year, recently transmitted the first 5G phone call to a regular smartphone in the cellular dead zone. Engineer on the phone Samsung Galaxy S22 Near Hana, Hawaii, it successfully connected to the satellite on Sept. 8 to communicate with another engineer in Spain for about two minutes, AST SpaceMobile Chief Strategy Officer Scott Wisniewski said.

The direct-to-device startup said it achieved download speeds of around 14 Mbps per second in a separate test, surpassing the 10 Mbps recorded on 4G in June, using the most efficient mobile network standard ever released.

“We believe further improvements are possible in BlueWalker 3,” Vishnevsky said Space News “We are sending via email and expect even higher performance from our first five commercial satellites.”

AST SpaceMobile recently secured funding to launch these five Block 1 BlueBird satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early next year. Each Block 1 BlueBird will be the same size as a 1,500-kilogram BlueWalker 3, and five of them will provide periodic connectivity for initial device monitoring services.

AST SpaceMobile is seeking funding to build more powerful BlueBirds that will be twice as large. It needs about 90 BlueBirds for its global 5G service, which will allow terrestrial mobile network partners to keep subscribers connected beyond cell towers.

The 5G tests used wireless spectrum from US telecommunications company AT&T, which was captured by the 64 square meter BlueWalker 3-phase array antenna, the largest commercial antenna installed in LEO. The satellite then transmitted the signals back to Vodafone’s terrestrial network in Spain.

AT&T is seeking approval to lease terrestrial frequencies commercially in the United States to AST SpaceMobile. Texas-based AST SpaceMobile and other direct-to-device companies are also awaiting a regulatory framework for the emerging industry from the FCC.

Virginia-based Lynk Global began commercial operations in Palau and the Cook Islands earlier this year, using spectrum from local telecom partners. Lynk currently has three pizza-box-sized LEO spacecraft that are part of a proposed constellation of 5,000 satellites that will initially provide lower-bandwidth services than AST SpaceMobile, such as text messaging and emergency alerts.

At the other end of the direct device market, satellite operators such as Globalstar and Iridium Communications are building businesses using satellite spectrum to access next-generation smartphones.

At the panel at the Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris last week, there were very different views on how fast this market will grow. Lynk CEO Charles Miller has suggested that the direct-to-device market could reach $1 billion in annual revenue in less than five years.

Iridium COO Susie McBride said based on her experience with feature phones that “it will take 10 years for the market to reach that level.”