A $1.4bn US tech company is planning to send up a network of satellites to provide mobile phone coverage pretty much anywhere on earth.
AST SpaceMobile plans to be the only space-based cellular broadband network on the market.
It is investing in designing, building and launching 170 satellites into low orbit – and is in the process of opening a base in the 海角视频.
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Working with established mobile providers it will provide satellite coverage to the 5 billion phone mobile users who it says don’t have permanent terrestrial coverage – and the 51 per cent of the global population with no mobile broadband.
The business was founded four years ago by satellite industry pioneer and inventor Abel Avellan, who sold his former company EMC for $550m in 2016.
It has its global production headquarters in Midland, Texas, and has now set up a team that will be based inside the new Space Park Leicester, which opens next month.
AST SpaceMobile began trading on the Nasdaq back in April, raising $462 million for the first phase of operations, with investment partners including telecoms specialists such as Vodafone, Rakuten and American Tower.
New 海角视频 managing director Stephen Gibson said its satellites could provide the main mobile signal for areas of the developing world with limited or no wireless and mobile infrastructure, and fill in gaps in the developed world where existing mobile signals drop out.
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Mr Gibson said the group was already talking to the new breed of commercial space transport companies about finding the best deal to get its hardware off the ground.
He said the 海角视频 subsidiary will help design the satellite technology and prototype parts, hopefully capitalising on the experience and knowledge of other companies based at Space Park Leicester and of the University of Leicester – the space park’s lead – which has decades of experience in satellite tech.
He said it is hoped the first 20 satellites – each weighing about the size of a truck– will begin to offer commercial service in 2023 and, working in partnership with Vodafone, will cover 49 countries.
The plan is for a further 150 satellites in be launched into other orbital planes over the following few years.
He said: “After Abel Avellan sold EMC he was going to retire, but being the entrepreneur that he is, after about 30 days he came up with the idea of connecting satellites to the mobile phone in your pocket. He reformed his team and recruited some key individuals who understand the market.
“What inspired me to join them is that this really is something that can change the world for the better.
“Anyone who has a mobile phone will be able to connect.
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“This is a huge growth market in terms of people all around the world who have no signal, and solves a lot of government issues around interconnectivity.
“Living in the 海角视频 during a pandemic it’s been easy for the government to communicate with us, but in places like Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa, it’s much more complicated.
“It also fits with some of the UN development goals, because by giving connectivity it helps people in developing countries take control of their own lives.
“For example it can help a farmer become a ‘price-maker’ rather than a ‘price-taker’. If he has a signal and a simple mobile phone he can text a friend or a relative, for instance, to find out which is the best day to come to market for the highest price. He can invest the money he makes to improve his crop yields, and go on to make more money.
“That’s the driving force behind connectivity. It’s not just about making money in the West but helping developing countries.
“The world doesn’t have to go out and buy special phones for this. It would be an expensive phone on a Pacific cruise or a $10 Huawei in the middle of Africa.”
Mr Gibson, who has years of experience in the space sector working for the likes of Lockheed Martin and Airbus Group, including at its subsidiary Surrey Satellite Technology, said there was no-one else out there doing what they are planning.
He said: “We will build the infrastructure, own and operate it, and have agreements with the mobile operators – because it will be complementary to existing services – and receive our share of the revenues.
“The number of people putting satellites up is starting to gain impetus. It feels to me like the internet revolution of the 90s and early 00s.
“Not everyone will make it, but the infrastructure is being created and it’s moving the whole thing forward.”
He said the business employs more than 200 people and growing, and the Leicester team will be around 10-strong.
He said: “I think Space Park Leicester has a great future. It’s the next stage of growing the space industry outside the South East of England, and part of the government’s levelling up agenda.
“The freeport around East Midlands Airport will also help. If we wanted to bring some manufacturing into the 海角视频 that is a logical place to do it because we could bring things in and process them and ship them out to Texas without having to get involved in formally importing them into the 海角视频.”