AST SpaceMobile Says It's Buying S-Band Rights Globally
AST SpaceMobile said Wednesday it had acquired priority S-band rights globally held under the ITU. The company's direct-to-device satellites were designed with S-band capabilities in mind, it noted. CEO Abel Avellan said that alongside AST's 3rd Generation Partnership Project spectrum strategy and L-band spectrum strategy in North America, "we would be capable of expanding subscriber capacity by offering the vast majority of countries around the world the full AST SpaceMobile network capabilities, together with our mobile network operator partners, enabling a true broadband experience directly from space to everyday smartphones and with a goal of peak data transmission speeds of up to 120 Mbps.”
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The company said it's buying an entity that holds S-band ITU priority rights to mobile satellite service (MSS) frequencies in 1980-2010 MHz and 2170-2200 MHz. The spectrum rights give it a route to offer services in those bands globally, it said, adding that the deal is supposed to close in the second half of this year.
AST didn't specify what entity it's buying. Satellite and spectrum consultant Tim Farrar wrote Wednesday that the takeover target apparently is the remnants of Sky and Space Global, "a company with crazy plans to get into the MSS business that went public then failed years ago."