It was from an area of ‘no coverage’ using a standard mobile phone and was processed via Vodafone’s newly-unveiled space-to-land gateway. A single such receiver – pictured above – can serve the whole of the UK.
The call was made from a remote mountain in Ceredigion, west Wales, and is part of Vodafone’s process of adding satellite connectivity to its UK phone network. It hopes to achieve this by the end of 2025, and across Europe in 2026.
Gateway
The signals from the user’s smartphone are processed via the BlueBird satellites of AST SpaceMobile. They are received and processed at Newbury, in the UK, at the company’s gateway. And they are then integrated with Vodafone’s leading land-based networks.
The call itself was from Rowan Chesmer, a Vodafone engineer, to Margherita Della Valle, the company’s CEO (right)
Astronaut Tim Peake is standing above with Della Valle in Newbury to mark the unveiling.
“Our advanced European 5G network will now be complemented with cutting-edge satellite technology,” said Della Valle. “We are bringing customers the best network and connecting people who have never had access to mobile communications before. This will help to close the digital divide, supporting people from all corners of Europe to keep in touch with family and friends, or work, as well as ensuring reliable rural connectivity in an emergency.”
Vodafone
According to Vodafone, direct-to-mobile broadband satellite will become a fully integrated extension of Vodafone’s existing land-based fibre and mobile networks. This will potentially provide digital connectivity for ‘not spots’, as well as stretches of surrounding sea.
The UK’s Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said:
“Since coming into office, I have put digital growth and inclusion at the top of my political agenda, harnessing the power of tech innovation to connect the most hard-to-reach parts of Britain. I am thrilled to see Vodafone leveraging satellite connectivity and 5G to help us plug coverage gaps and improve lives across the country.”
AST SpaceMobile
For its part, AST SpaceMobile highlighted the progress already made:
“Together [with Vodafone], we have achieved several world firsts in space-based broadband connectivity, including the first-ever space-based voice call, the first-ever 4G download speed above 10 Mbps, and the first-ever 5G voice call,” said Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile. “This latest achievement using our BlueBird satellites, takes us one step closer to our mission to eliminate connectivity gaps and make cellular broadband accessible to all.”
Ofcom estimates 9% of the UK can be classified as ‘not spots’.
Some modern devices already support satellite connectivity, for emergencies, but this will be for text messages and not video calls.
Image: Vodafone
See also: Viasat joins 5GAA for automotive direct to device satcomms