Internet giant Google and major telecommunications companies AT&T and Vodafone are investing in AST SpaceMobile, which is developing a Starlink rival focused on phones.
According to the news shared today Google, AT&T and Vodafone will come together and compete with SpaceX Starlink, which plans to provide connection / internet service to smartphones via satellites to be sent to low earth orbit. AST is investing $206.5 million in SpaceMobile. On top of this investment, giant names that will support AST SpaceMobile in both hardware and software are taking next steps, especially focusing on Android devices. The world’s most important private space company SpaceXhas recently become the first company to bring internet from space to phones. starlink He had thrown away his satellites. If you missed it, the most important development in the past year regarding Starlink, which can provide high-speed internet from space, is Joint event by T-Mobile and SpaceX and there were important announcements made at the event. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and CEO of SpaceX elon Muskespecially in the event we mentioned “satellite to cellular” It made a splash with its infrastructure. SpaceX’s new generation satellites, with the special equipment they carry, Capable of providing satellite internet directly to smartphones, eliminating dead zones around the world. This infrastructure will be combined with T-Mobile’s 5G network in the USA, thus providing coverage to almost every place in the country.
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The last thing that brought this system to the agenda was the here It became the official site. “Direct to CellThe company accelerated its efforts to put the system called ” into use. opened It was announced on the site that the infrastructure would be activated in 2024. The first step in this regard was taken in the past weeks. was thrown and 21 new Starlink satellites loaded onto the Falcon 9 rocket were sent to low earth orbit. Six of these 21 satellites are officially “Direct to CellIt was shared that it had support and the first tests gave positive results.
The infrastructure, which will initially remain exclusive to certain countries, will only be used for text messages in 2024, Voice and data transfer will also be included in the process in 2025. Also in 2025 IoT Support will also be provided for devices. The Direct to Cell system, which will work with existing “LTE” supported smartphones without any modifications, will not offer high speeds at first, but can make a big difference, especially in emergency situations.