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SatShow - Live in the Booth with AST SpaceMobile President Scott Wisniewski · AST SpaceMobile Podcast

• 0:06
  This is the AST Space Mobile podcast and.
• 0:10
  We just basically come your phone and be seamless regardless
• 0:14
  of where you are. We don't want the user even to
• 0:16
  know that it's connected by satellite.
• 0:21
  Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
• 0:26
  Hi, we are live in the booth with Via Satellite at the SAT
• 0:30
  Show. I'm Rachel Jewett, Senior
• 0:31
  Managing Editor of Via Satellite.
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  I'm here with my colleague Mark Holmes, Senior Editorial
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  Director, and we're thrilled to be interviewing Scott
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  Wisniewski, President and Chief Strategy Officer of ASC Space
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  Mobile. Scott, thanks for joining us
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  today. Thank you for having us.
• 0:43
  Yeah. So ASC Space Mobile, you've
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  recently unfolded the Bluebird 6 satellite, which is the largest
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  commercial communications array antenna truly a while to to see
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  that in space. What's the status of the
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  satellite in orbit and can you talk us through the launch plans
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  coming up this year? Sure.
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  Well, this is our first next generation satellite.
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  When you think about the director of ice industry that
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  we're creating, you know we want to be broadbands, you know
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  broadband is our strategy and you get to broadband with big
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  satellites. So that's why we designed and
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  built out of Texas this satellite, it's the biggest
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  ever. It's 3 1/2 times larger than our
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  last five satellites, which were also the biggest ever.
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  So it's going great. We launched it just before
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  Christmas out of India and we unfolded it successfully several
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  weeks ago, a little over a month ago.
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  And that satellite is performing very well.
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  It's done everything it's supposed to do.
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  The hardest part is unfolding well and that's the that went
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  successfully, which is great. And, and next, we're getting
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  ready to release it for customer use.
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  And so it's, it's this, this challenge of communicating with
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  a big satellite moving 4 miles a second, 500 miles away to a
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  regular phone with no changes of phone.
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  It's a very significant one. And getting all that calibrated
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  within our architecture is a key effort.
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  And so this is really the, the first big satellite that we're
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  able to do that with and build on that.
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  And then throughout the year, we're going to be launching more
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  and more birds. OK, we can go on to the to the
• 2:12
  next question. Spectrum for D to D has been
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  such a key topic of conversation in the last few months after
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  Spacex's Spectrum purchase an AST Space Mobile owned deal with
• 2:22
  Legato for Spectrum. Can you talk about why this
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  Spectrum deal was important and will AST Space Mobile be looking
• 2:29
  for access to even more MSS Spectrum?
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  Sure. So spectrum is critical in
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  telecom, right. We all know that.
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  And from the beginning of the company we designed our strategy
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  around using cellular spectrum, the spectrum of our partners and
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  we've been really good at building the ecosystem and
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  building our partner base. We think we're the partner of
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  choice with indirect device. And so we've done that with an
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  add on product that can grow revenue for the operators and
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  improve the network characteristics from reducing
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  churn. And in doing that we can also
• 3:00
  use stranded spectrum or or loose spectrum assets and kind
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  of recycle it through our our large array.
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  And so that's been our strategy from the beginning and it's
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  still our core strategy. However, if you could have more
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  spectrum, you would right. And so that's why a little over
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  a year ago we signed an agreement for long term access
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  rights with the L band in the United States and Canada.
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  And since then, we also acquired a, a company with I2 rights to
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  the S band globally. And the at the core of it is
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  more spectrum is better, It means more services, more
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  subscribers and it's also strategic asset that we can
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  control within our company and bring the bear through our
• 3:34
  partners. So it's a key part of our
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  strategy now. I think it was one that we got
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  out ahead of and when we did our deal, which is great and it's
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  clear that that's the right strategy for the industry is to
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  combine both backwards compatible 3 GPP spectrum access
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  with our partners while also bringing spectrum to the party
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  to improve services. Absolutely.
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  And the just seeing the different operate like before it
• 4:00
  was just working with telco spectrum, but there's really
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  been a shift to companies wanting to have their own
• 4:06
  spectrum rights for DVD. So it's been interesting to
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  watch. And Mobile World Congress, you
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  announced an agreement with Orange covering both Europe and
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  the rest of the world. Can you talk about the
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  significance of this? And I know you have a lot of
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  mobile network operators, but the significance of this
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  particular one with Orange? Yeah.
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  And we really do view ourselves as the partner of choice for
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  mobile network operators as they think about direct to device and
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  that's because we help build their business together.
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  We are have a very friendly architecture with how we build
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  work broadband on narrowband. These are all things that are
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  very valuable as they build their network.
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  And so we have over 50 mobile network operators and many of
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  them are investors who have nearly 3 billion subscribers
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  amongst them. So that brings us to Orange.
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  So Orange is one of the most significant players in Europe as
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  well as Africa. And so we've had a long term
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  relationship with Orange and they've been very eager to
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  develop our services with us. And so this new agreement
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  through Satco in Europe, which is our joint venture as well as
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  in Africa is very significant because what it means is that we
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  can bring more operators to bear.
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  It's not just Vodafone in Europe and it's not just one player in
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  Africa. So I think our desires to be
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  have Open Access with all operators, we think we're the
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  partner of choice for that and Orange is another step in that
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  direction. We also signed Telefonica vote
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  of Cone Ukraine, which is different than Vodafone and
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  several others across Europe and during that important
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  conference. I just want to, I just want to
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  follow up on that. I mean, you mentioned you signed
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  a number of deals at Mobile World Congress this year.
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  Given the deals that you've already done, what does the deal
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  flow look like for AST over say the next 12 months?
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  And if we're having this conversation in 12 months time
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  live in the booth, how many sort of contracts deals would you
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  expect to do within that time frame?
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  And just to refresh, you know, we have signed deals and got an
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  investment with AT&T and Verizon in the US, Bell and Telus in
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  Canada, Vodafone in Europe, rackets and in Japan, American
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  Tower and Google are also investors.
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  So these are pretty significant moves that we've made including
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  signing a a large 10 year deal with STC across the Middle East
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  and North Africa. So these are all really
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  important to how we think about building the ecosystem.
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  We can't go it alone, we don't want to.
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  The 6 billion phones in circulation represents an
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  enormous market opportunity that we're very excited about.
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  So how to think about that with us?
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  So we are planning to roll out our network this year, more next
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  year, but but a significant amount of it this year in order
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  to launch Commercial Services this year.
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  And as we do that market by market, we need to think about
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  how we're bringing operators onto the network.
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  So today we have signed definitive commercial agreements
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  with AT&T and Verizon and Vodafone and STC.
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  And So what you're going to see from us is going in deeper with
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  our relationships with our customers, bringing more people
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  onto the network with very detailed legal contracts that
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  allow them to basically offer this to all their subscribers
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  and give us a vehicle to improve their network.
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  So you're going to see us getting in deeper with all of
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  our relationships today. You'll see a few new ones.
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  There's a few that aren't aren't yet on the network.
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  But primarily, you're going to see us going deeper throughout
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  the course of 2026 with our existing base.
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  Is there a particular region of the world that you think has
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  really like particularly strong potential for consumer adoption
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  for deity? Yeah, it's a great question
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  because the world is very large, right?
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  And The funny thing about space is you'll see a lot of companies
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  that say, well, I'm going to build a network, but it's, it's
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  global. You need 10 years, $10 billion
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  and it's a very probable problematic challenge.
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  And so as we think about prioritizing markets, we've gone
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  in deep with our partners, obviously, and some of our
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  partners are in the US and Canada and Europe and Japan, the
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  US government. And so those are very logical
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  places to start. But what we found is that that
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  the consumer wants to be connected.
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  We all know this. In the last 30-40 years, we've
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  all gotten a computer on our desk and a phone in our pocket.
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  That's how we stay connected to the world.
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  And what we see is market by market.
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  The demand shape might be a little different, but the desire
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  to have connectivity both as a marking ploy and as a network
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  solve is very significant. Whether that's people with
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  ability to pay who want the convenience factor, people who
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  legitimately don't have good connectivity and will pay as a
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  portion of their disposable income or people that just want
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  to have that promise fulfilled of being connected all the time,
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  which increasingly we need and are desperate to have.
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  So that's really what we see in every market really we with very
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  with limited exception, we've seen significant demand from
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  from all, all the major markets. We of course are going to
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  prioritize the big markets first, but we see a demand curve
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  that we can monetize and, and and help the operators support
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  their network across the world. Yeah.
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  So we've been talking about commercial and I want to ask a
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  little bit about the defense business.
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  So the company recently got a big Space Development Agency
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  contract and the first overall award for the SDA's Europa
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  effort. So can you give us a little bit
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  more contacts on what AST Space Mobile will be doing for Space
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  Development Agency and then kind of the significance of what this
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  award means? Sure.
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  And the the defense market is a good one for space.
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  You know, we've been primarily built our business around the
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  commercial market. But if we if we were a space
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  company to build only around the commercial market would be the
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  first ever. So the defense market has made a
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  lot of sense over the last couple years as we've deployed
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  network and they've seen what this kind of brand new
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  one-of-a-kind architecture can do because when you have a large
• 9:35
  array in low Earth orbit, it facilitates a number of
• 9:38
  communications and non communications use cases.
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  So today what you've seen is over 10 contracts that was
• 9:43
  signed over the last two years, including testing we're doing on
• 9:46
  orbit today for radar applications for many different
• 9:50
  type of communications applications, some that are
• 9:53
  solved today, others that are not solved today.
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  Anytime you want to do radar, you want to have a big antenna
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  and we have a very big array in low Earth orbit.
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  And anytime you want to talk to something that's more than just
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  a, a backpack or an antenna on a, on a, on a plane, you want to
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  have something that's low profile that is 3 GPP
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  compatible. I can do number of different
• 10:14
  waveforms. So what you're seeing from us is
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  a number of contracts, several of the SDA including the more
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  recent, most recent one for Europa, which will develop a
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  number of specific secure communications capabilities that
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  ultimately will feed large contracts.
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  And so for us, the vision that we've painted is 1 where we have
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  up to 10 different use cases and communications and non
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  communications, each of which could be a a future program of
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  record for the US government and a very valuable asset for
• 10:43
  Americans. Just one very, very quick
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  question before we we wrap up. You talked about the defence
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  market there and I'm just sort of curious in terms of like the
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  revenue balance between defence and commercial maybe in three
• 10:57
  years time, what would you expect that balance to be?
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  Yeah. So it's a, it's a great
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  question. And and we we're building a new
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  market and the market sizes put forward for direct device are,
• 11:07
  are quite astronomical. So we we know that we're going
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  to be leading that market. We're going to be pushing that
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  market. We're going to be developing the
• 11:13
  market in a very good way with our partners.
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  But the split between we, we think both commercial and
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  government could be billion dollar businesses for us, multi
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  billion dollar businesses for us over the long run.
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  And in the near term, we'll probably see a balance kind of
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  5050 maybe even skewed a little towards the fence.
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  But over time, we expect commercial to outpace it and
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  that's a key part of our strategy in 2027 and 2020.
• 11:34
  Eight OK well, Scott it's been an absolute pleasure to to talk
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  to you today It's great to talk to a company with such big and
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  bold ambitions like AST space mobile We wish you a great rest
• 11:44
  of that show and and all the best for the rest of the year
• 11:46
  thank you for. Your time and much for having
• 11:47
  us. Thanks for listening to the AST
• 11:51
  Space Mobile podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and
• 11:55
  you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with
• 11:58
  others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and
• 12:01
  review. To catch all the latest news
• 12:03
  about AST Space Mobile, make sure to subscribe.
• 12:07
  Thanks again and I'll see you next time.
• 12:13
  We're doing something very, very big and I think with this
• 12:15
  technology we can really affect billion lives.
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  AFT Space Mobile is the only company that has good technology
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  to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly from space
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  to do everyday smartphone. People will just basically turn
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  their phone and be seamless, regardless of where you are.
• 12:34
  We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by
• 12:36
  satellite. Our role is to bring this into
• 12:40
  reality, always in partnership with the enemy.