Latest / AST SpaceMobile Podcast / Scott Wisniewski at CES 2026 - Satellite meet smartphone the new era of connectivity

Transcript

Scott Wisniewski at CES 2026 - Satellite meet smartphone the new era of connectivity · AST SpaceMobile Podcast

• 0:06
  Good afternoon and welcome to the final Space track session at
• 0:10
  CES today. My name is Samantha Drolly and
• 0:13
  I'm a manager at Nova Space. And for the next 40 minutes,
• 0:17
  we're going to be talking about satellite direct to device
• 0:19
  connectivity and what it means to make no signal a thing of the
• 0:24
  past. I'm joined by executives of
• 0:27
  representatives from different satellite operators in the DDD
• 0:30
  landscape today. And we'll be covering what's
• 0:33
  changed over the past year in the DDD sector, what
• 0:37
  capabilities exist today, what's to come in the future,
• 0:40
  investments and partnerships in this sector, spectrum and
• 0:44
  regulatory hurdles, amongst other challenges, as well as the
• 0:48
  path to profitability. In 2025, we saw the industry
• 0:52
  shift from pilots and beta testing to early
• 0:55
  commercialization of services. So reflecting on the past year,
• 0:59
  and I think CES is a great time for that.
• 1:00
  As we kick off 2026, I'll invite each of the panelists to briefly
• 1:05
  introduce themselves and share what has meaningfully shifted
• 1:08
  DDD over the past year. So, Barbie, I'll let you get
• 1:11
  started and we can make our way down the line.
• 1:13
  Thank you, Samaya. It's good to be back at CES with
• 1:17
  Nova Space. So Global Star, we're a mobile
• 1:19
  satellite services company. We've been providing mobile
• 1:22
  satellite services globally for well over 25 years and we have
• 1:27
  been supporting real direct to device connectivity now for over
• 1:32
  three years. So Global Stark connectivity is
• 1:35
  now in the hands of over half a billion consumer devices
• 1:39
  worldwide. Thank you.
• 1:43
  So thank you again. My name is Amy Mehlman.
• 1:46
  I'm Executive Vice President and Chief Copa Affairs Officer for
• 1:50
  Lync. Lync is a company that about
• 1:53
  seven or eight years ago came up with this funky idea of direct
• 1:58
  to device and, and trying to get a signal from a satellite in low
• 2:02
  Earth orbit to your unmodified phone, essentially to be a cell
• 2:07
  tower in space. Make sure you're always
• 2:10
  connected, whatever, whatever the situation is, whether
• 2:14
  there's an emergency and everything has gone down on the
• 2:16
  terrestrial side or you're just out of range.
• 2:19
  So we've been, you know, working in the United States, we had a,
• 2:25
  you know, the, the benefit of being the, you know, first one
• 2:30
  to actually get a direct device license in, well, anywhere
• 2:36
  actually. So we were excited about that
• 2:40
  and certainly excited about the industry and where it's going
• 2:42
  and how it's really gaining strength.
• 2:47
  And I'm Kevin Cohen. I lead business development and
• 2:50
  partnerships at ViaSat and nice to be here.
• 2:54
  So ViaSat as through its acquisition of Mr. Sat a few
• 2:57
  years ago, we got access to a global, global coverage with
• 3:02
  geostationary satellites and the largest portfolio of spectrum
• 3:05
  across the globe. So that those satellites have
• 3:08
  been offering service for safety of flight, maritime safety for
• 3:12
  you know 20 plus years now. And with direct to device and
• 3:16
  three GBP standards with release 17, we've been able to bring
• 3:19
  that spectrum into use in commercially available devices.
• 3:23
  So we're seeing with Pixel devices, Samsung S25 devices in
• 3:27
  the US with Verizon offering satellite SMS when you're
• 3:30
  outside of coverage. And then we're also seeing an
• 3:34
  automotive where new cars are going to be coming out with a
• 3:38
  feature to be able to talk to satellites when you're outside
• 3:41
  of connectivity. And one of the things if you
• 3:42
  visit the Qualcomm booth, you'll see a demonstration of voice
• 3:46
  over our Geo satellites, a live demonstration of that.
• 3:50
  And I think it's a pretty big change to where where you're out
• 3:54
  of connectivity, you will not, you won't lose the ability to
• 3:58
  connect to people. Hi, I'm Susie McBride.
• 4:02
  I'm the Chief Operations Officer at Iridium.
• 4:05
  And we too are a mobile satellite service provider with
• 4:08
  over 25 years of service covering the entire globe, pole
• 4:11
  to pole, our specialties in a lot of safety services, IoT
• 4:15
  across multiple markets, aviation, maritime, personal
• 4:18
  communications. And so I think I was joke
• 4:21
  because direct device has been around actually quite a long
• 4:23
  time. I mean now it's direct to
• 4:25
  unmodified devices and trying to use chipsets.
• 4:28
  So we've been moving into the standards world, especially in
• 4:31
  the narrow band IoT especially focused area to ensure that we
• 4:34
  can continue to provide connectivity to our key
• 4:36
  customers that need it in multiple regions of the world
• 4:39
  and know that when they travel, they can use the same product
• 4:41
  anywhere that they go. My name is Scott Wisniewski.
• 4:46
  I'm President of AST Space Mobile.
• 4:49
  We're building a purpose built directive device constellation
• 4:53
  that does broadband directive unmodified phones.
• 4:57
  We've been doing this for close to a decade now and our strategy
• 5:01
  is to go direct with operators. So we partner with operators
• 5:04
  around the world, over 50 of them that cover nearly 3 billion
• 5:07
  Subs. Today, as of Christmas Eve, we
• 5:11
  are flying 6 satellites in orbit, 6 of the the largest ever
• 5:16
  launched into low Earth orbit commercially.
• 5:19
  And you know a lot of discussions and last couple
• 5:22
  months have talked about the importance of putting big things
• 5:24
  into orbit. And that's when one of the
• 5:25
  things we've always focused on is how to put a big satellite
• 5:29
  into orbit in order to connect to a small device very far away.
• 5:32
  And so we're we're entirely focused on the director device
• 5:35
  opportunity. Our strategy is broadband and we
• 5:38
  build our own satellites here in the United States and Texas.
• 5:40
  And 2025 was a really important year for us because we started
• 5:43
  off with a long term rights acquisition of L Band Spectrum
• 5:46
  in January. We raised over $3 billion over
• 5:50
  the course of the year to fund approximately 100 satellites in
• 5:52
  our constellation. And we advanced significantly
• 5:56
  some of our partnership agreements, including with
• 5:57
  Verizon in the United States and and Vodafone in Europe and and
• 6:01
  Bell in Canada. So these are some of the the,
• 6:04
  the big things that we've done in 2025 and we're very eager to
• 6:07
  get going in 2026. Thanks, Scott.
• 6:10
  So over the past year, many of you have announced major
• 6:13
  partnerships and investments, some that you've touched upon
• 6:16
  that will really shape how DDD scales.
• 6:18
  And I personally think that this has really changed the DDD
• 6:21
  competitive landscape over the past year.
• 6:23
  So we'll dive a little bit deeper into that and see what
• 6:25
  that's unlocking for the DDD world and what it really means
• 6:28
  going forward. So Kevin, maybe starting with
• 6:31
  ViaSat first, the recent launch of Equidist, the joint venture
• 6:34
  with Space 42. How do you anticipate that this
• 6:37
  joint venture will influence Viasat's DDD plans and what is
• 6:41
  it designed to enable? Yeah.
• 6:43
  So when we when we founded the joint venture Equitus with Space
• 6:47
  Forward Two, we were looking at ways to fund a constellation.
• 6:51
  They could bring more capacity by bringing the satellites
• 6:54
  closer to Earth so we can reuse the spectrum more efficiently
• 6:57
  and bring multiple spectrum holders to the party while not
• 7:00
  having a single operator that has to fund the whole thing.
• 7:04
  So when when we came up with basically a space tower
• 7:06
  approach, it allows for a different funding profile, a
• 7:09
  different return, and it allows multiple companies to actually
• 7:13
  get access to those towers to enable different types of
• 7:16
  service for their customers, whether it's existing customers,
• 7:19
  whether it's future applications.
• 7:21
  And we're anticipating that in the next few months we'll be
• 7:24
  making additional announcements about that constellation.
• 7:27
  But you know we're expecting launch in the 20282029 time
• 7:31
  frame and it will always be backed by that the Geo
• 7:34
  satellites that we have that are operating today by bringing this
• 7:37
  Leo constellation as well to offer better services.
• 7:42
  So Scott, AST is also bringing together, you know, an ecosystem
• 7:45
  of mobile operators, many that have also served as strategic
• 7:48
  investors, maybe honing in on the Vodafone partnership and the
• 7:52
  Sacco joint venture. How do you anticipate that this
• 7:55
  will strengthen ASTSDDD strategy and how will it help expand into
• 7:59
  regions outside of North America like Europe?
• 8:04
  Well, like I said, our strategy is to go exclusively to market
• 8:07
  with the mobile network operator.
• 8:09
  We do it typically as an add on basis with a revenue share.
• 8:12
  We split 5050. And so that's enabled us to get
• 8:14
  early investment over the years from Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon,
• 8:18
  Google, Bell Canada, Rakatin, and then even this year we
• 8:23
  signed up a A10 year agreement with STC in Saudi Arabia across
• 8:26
  the MENA region. So we, we, we really focus on
• 8:29
  partnerships because we don't have, we, we don't have all the
• 8:32
  assets to go, to go to marketing with 6 billion Subs that use
• 8:35
  phones today. So partners are in our, in our,
• 8:39
  you know, in our DNA. Vodafone's been a very early
• 8:41
  supporter. They've invested in US three
• 8:43
  times and so we took the decision to make a joint venture
• 8:46
  with them about a year ago. That is an entity in Europe that
• 8:50
  allows us to go to market and kind of strengthen the the
• 8:54
  reach. So it's a like a distribution
• 8:56
  entity for us in Europe. So rather than just focusing on
• 8:59
  UK, Germany, Spain, France, you know, the big markets, that
• 9:02
  allows us to not only hit the big markets, but also expand
• 9:06
  beyond the Vodafone footprint and go across the entire member
• 9:11
  states of the of the Union. So we've signed up to date 21 of
• 9:15
  the Member States to initial MO US and basically look to use
• 9:19
  that as an entity to drive utilization across Europe.
• 9:23
  Link also recently announced plans to merge with Omni Space.
• 9:27
  So, Amy, curious to hear your thoughts on how Omni Space's
• 9:30
  merger plans will influence Link's DDD path and what becomes
• 9:34
  materially easier because of this transaction?
• 9:36
  Sure. As we started this whole this
• 9:42
  venture into DDD that we were very much focused on the MNO
• 9:45
  spectrum. We still are definitely working
• 9:49
  with the MNO partners we have, I think you know 52 or so around
• 9:53
  the world. But with the Omni Space merger
• 9:58
  that actually brings a lot of MSS spectrum, 2 gigahertz
• 10:01
  spectrum to the table. That's going to be really
• 10:03
  important. I think a lot of us are going to
• 10:05
  be looking to blend those two opportunities to be bring that
• 10:09
  seamless connectivity to the customer, make sure that we have
• 10:12
  enough capacity to offer those more advanced services as we go
• 10:16
  forward. I would be remiss if I didn't
• 10:18
  also mention a very, very key strategic partnership as well
• 10:22
  with SES that we have that is going to be very, very important
• 10:26
  to our build. You know, we we are utilizing
• 10:29
  some of their infrastructure making sure that we do this much
• 10:32
  more efficiently and effectively so that we can actually provide
• 10:35
  those benefits on you know, and those lower costs on to the
• 10:39
  consumer. So they are a very strategic
• 10:41
  partner of ours in this as well along with the M and OS who are
• 10:45
  based basically our sales force. So, but this is all very
• 10:49
  exciting for us and we're hoping to, you know, get this system up
• 10:52
  and operational sooner because of it.
• 10:56
  Iridium is also partnered with several operators and service
• 10:59
  providers to support the NTN Direct solution.
• 11:03
  So, Susie, curious to hear what has been the most influential or
• 11:06
  one of the most influential partnerships to Iridium over the
• 11:09
  past year or so? Yeah.
• 11:11
  Well, there's AI mean there's a couple.
• 11:13
  Obviously from the MNO standpoint, we have announced
• 11:16
  Vodafone and Dodge Telecom and what we're finding is, you know,
• 11:19
  everybody wants to make sure they got lots of alternatives
• 11:21
  and pricing and and options for ensuring that they got
• 11:24
  connectivity. About two years ago, we made the
• 11:27
  switch from only proprietary to GSM standards and we amazing
• 11:31
  support we got through going through the the three GPP
• 11:35
  process and it was amazing how quickly we got our our
• 11:39
  frequencies built into that. And now we've been developing
• 11:41
  that fact. We've been testing over the last
• 11:43
  couple of months and done our mobile originated messages now
• 11:47
  using a Nordic chips and Nordic is another key partner of ours
• 11:50
  in terms of a chipset. We've got other partners we're
• 11:52
  working on but aren't officially announced yet.
• 11:54
  And so I think all of that is is key in getting our
• 11:57
  infrastructure in line. We also have Syniverse to do
• 12:00
  some more connectivity to ensure that we can you know do the
• 12:02
  roaming agreements easily and work with all the big M and OS
• 12:05
  that are used to working in this in this realm.
• 12:08
  So those kind of partnerships, a lot of our ecosystem and
• 12:11
  products that we already build in our other proprietary type
• 12:14
  solutions, those customers are very anxious and wanting to you
• 12:18
  know, drive down some of their chips at cost where they can now
• 12:21
  do both cellular and satellite in one device.
• 12:24
  So you know they're partnering with us in testing and coming in
• 12:28
  now to now that we've got our system up and running, which is
• 12:30
  a big, a big change to how we used to do things.
• 12:33
  They're in there to start testing and it's going to be a
• 12:35
  big year for us ahead as we get ready to launch in 2026.
• 12:40
  And with Global Star Apple, you know, being the primary partner
• 12:44
  with the latest developments over the past year.
• 12:46
  So what is the impact on Global Star's DDD expansion plan?
• 12:51
  Quite remarkable. You know, we have historically
• 12:56
  focused on the consumer mass market since our beginning.
• 13:01
  We we've wanted to make devices that operate over our satellite
• 13:05
  system that are small, inexpensive, easy to use and saw
• 13:10
  everyone as a customer. We started working with this
• 13:15
  company in Cupertino a few years ago and we're successful in in
• 13:24
  integrating our, you know, unique satellite solutions into
• 13:28
  their new devices. And we announced that
• 13:33
  breakthrough in September of 2022 and started commercial
• 13:38
  service in November of 2022. So now you know, we are I think
• 13:46
  fully committed to AD to D approach with with our with
• 13:51
  Cupertino. And I'm proud to say that I'm
• 13:55
  here sitting on stage with two devices, consumer devices that
• 13:58
  operate directly with our satellite system. 1 is my iPhone
• 14:04
  and the other is my new watch. So very, I think it's been a
• 14:09
  very successful relationship and and we look forward to that
• 14:13
  relationship expanding in the very near future.
• 14:17
  Certainly, and these partnerships are really
• 14:19
  influencing the type of services that are coming to the market.
• 14:22
  So shifting over to service differentiation and what works
• 14:25
  reliably today versus what's to come.
• 14:28
  Barbie, maybe you could share a little bit more about the
• 14:29
  services that are currently offered and what's intended to
• 14:32
  be offered by the new or next C3 generation constellation?
• 14:37
  Sure. So you know, Global Star, we
• 14:39
  have our own mobile satellite services products and services
• 14:42
  that we develop in house as well as with partners.
• 14:46
  We have supported a spot line of products since 2007 that's been
• 14:50
  responsible for over 10,000 rescues globally.
• 14:54
  Again, a device inexpensive, easy to use, put it in your
• 14:57
  pocket, take it out when you need it and use it with what's
• 15:02
  coming up. I think that, you know we are in
• 15:05
  the process now replenishing our existing constellation, our our
• 15:10
  senior constellation courtesy of a new 15 year license from our
• 15:15
  Federal Communications Commission.
• 15:16
  So over the next year we'll be launching satellites to
• 15:20
  replenish what we call our Hiblio constellation that we've
• 15:24
  been operating now for over 2 decades.
• 15:27
  And at the same time we have announced a major additional
• 15:31
  investment in the third generation system, we call it
• 15:34
  C3. We are currently in the process,
• 15:39
  I guess I would say in a, a global construction project
• 15:43
  where we are installing about 90 new ground station antennas
• 15:49
  around the world proudly made in the United States, but being
• 15:54
  exported to 25, approximately 25 countries, about 35 sites all in
• 16:00
  preparation of launching our third generation constellation.
• 16:04
  So the ground infrastructure will be in place when we start
• 16:08
  launching those additional satellites and and the not too
• 16:11
  distant future. This will provide, I think of
• 16:16
  course, a expanded level of of of ability for us to support
• 16:25
  additional D to D features that will be announced in the future.
• 16:31
  Thanks. And I think Iridium is in a
• 16:33
  similar position to, you know, being in the market offering D
• 16:35
  to D type connectivity for quite some time now.
• 16:38
  So maybe, Susie, just sharing some thoughts on how Iridium's
• 16:42
  NT and direct solution is really augmenting what Iridium already
• 16:45
  provides to the market today? Yeah.
• 16:47
  I mean, obviously we're going to have a lot of customers that
• 16:49
  continue on the path that we've been on and that because they
• 16:52
  really enjoy what they have. It's built into a lot of their
• 16:54
  solutions that they've got big solutions built around, sorry,
• 16:59
  but for the the intend direct solutions, what we're where the
• 17:02
  expansion comes for us is some of our current partners, but
• 17:06
  also there is a lot of situations in solutions out
• 17:09
  there. It always is an example of 1
• 17:11
  where you know, some Brazilian solutions for farming called
• 17:15
  once and they wanted to know about using satellite because
• 17:18
  the cell networks weren't as reliable.
• 17:20
  They had outages. But it's a very kind of fixed
• 17:22
  place. And so having some, a chip that
• 17:25
  does both that can use the cellular, but then roam on to a
• 17:29
  satellite solution like Iridium and 10 direct is a great way to
• 17:33
  supplement and grow the market in that way and expand in, in
• 17:36
  places that that weren't traditionally looking at
• 17:39
  satellite solutions. So our go to market is also
• 17:43
  through M and OS, you know, and some, and then also having some
• 17:45
  large direct relationships with partners that want to have a
• 17:48
  global solution and a mobile solution.
• 17:50
  Because, you know, one of the key things for us in why we
• 17:53
  differentiate from others is because we have been a truly
• 17:56
  global dedicated spectrum area where partners can build stuff
• 17:59
  and they know wherever in the world it goes, it can work.
• 18:02
  And so we're trying to use that as one of our key
• 18:04
  differentiators, especially in some of the key markets that we
• 18:07
  that we addressed today. And when we think about DDD and
• 18:11
  the services that are going to be offered in the future, one of
• 18:13
  the questions that you know continuously comes up is when
• 18:16
  will the service be similar to what traditional terrestrial
• 18:19
  services are offering today. So specifically thinking about
• 18:22
  voice, data and broadband capabilities, how close are we
• 18:27
  to delivering an experience comparable to what is being
• 18:30
  offered today and what still limits that capability?
• 18:33
  And maybe, Scott, I'll lean on you to get as forward as AST
• 18:36
  path, you know does show broadband connectivity as one of
• 18:39
  the services to be offered. I, I think, you know, when you
• 18:44
  think about direct advice and you think about making it useful
• 18:47
  to everybody, you want the phone to just work, right?
• 18:49
  The phone in your pocket that doesn't work.
• 18:51
  You want it to just work. We all want it to just work.
• 18:53
  That feeling when the phone doesn't work and you're just
• 18:55
  sitting on $1000 in your pocket, it just drives you nuts, right?
• 18:58
  So it's really all about how do you bring to bear something
• 19:02
  that's like terrestrial connectivity?
• 19:03
  And that's why we've gone from the beginning for a very big
• 19:08
  satellite in orbit that can support big throughput and why
• 19:12
  we've acquired spectrum rights to do so and why we've partnered
• 19:15
  with the operator. So we're not only looking at 100
• 19:19
  megahertz of MSS globally, we're looking at 1000 megahertz of
• 19:23
  cellular spectrum globally. So those factors keeping the
• 19:27
  pipe big, keeping the antennas big so that the phone can
• 19:31
  ultimately experience better than 3G, you know, Lt. or even
• 19:36
  5G is, is critical. And so it's a network
• 19:39
  infrastructure thing. It's getting integrated with
• 19:42
  three GPP early, which is something we did with our Nokia
• 19:45
  partnership about five years ago to kind of build on three GPP
• 19:47
  and not wait for the standards. So having those solutions to
• 19:51
  make it truly mass market so that you have a low friction
• 19:54
  experience that can be rolled out to the consumer mass market
• 19:57
  in a meaningful way, those are the facilitating factors.
• 20:00
  And so today and since really 2023, when we have a satellite
• 20:04
  overhead, we can do cellular broadband, we can do video calls
• 20:07
  on the phone. We're in the in the process of
• 20:10
  rolling out more satellites in orbit so that instead of 30 or
• 20:12
  60 minutes of up time a day, you have 24 hours.
• 20:15
  And that's really the journey we're on now during 2026 is get
• 20:18
  to that 24 hour up time. Amy, did you want to jump in
• 20:22
  there and also share, you know, links path forward with device?
• 20:26
  Sure, sure. I mean, I think I, I, I don't
• 20:28
  disagree with a lot of what Scott said.
• 20:31
  I will say, you know, the goal in the first instance for those
• 20:34
  who are looking to actually get to a direct to unmodified
• 20:37
  devices to really look at the entire ecosystem throughout the
• 20:41
  world. There are a lot of people that
• 20:43
  have situations where they are not connected.
• 20:45
  They can't buy that $1000 new phone and might not even be able
• 20:49
  to in the next, you know, couple years when those new phones
• 20:52
  with, you know, the various additional MSS bands are
• 20:54
  actually included. So we want to make sure that we
• 20:57
  are actually including all of these various, you know,
• 21:02
  devices, you know, the two G 3G-4G devices that may stay out
• 21:06
  there for a while, right. So we want to, we are looking
• 21:09
  forward to having all of that legacy set of devices connected.
• 21:15
  We are, you know, going to be building over the next couple
• 21:18
  years making sure that we can actually do that along with
• 21:21
  providing, as I mentioned, the MSS service opportunity as well
• 21:27
  the additional capability capacity.
• 21:29
  But I, I really do think it's very important to make sure that
• 21:32
  we get to those folks in need in various places in the world that
• 21:36
  can't necessarily buy that new phone.
• 21:38
  So we're looking forward to, you know, with everybody else in
• 21:42
  this room, you know, making sure that we can address that
• 21:45
  opportunity. Certainly.
• 21:47
  And I think that that leads me to to one of my next points,
• 21:50
  which is talking about some of the enablers, you know of
• 21:52
  offering D to D connectivity and one of that is really device
• 21:56
  readiness. So what do you see today as the
• 21:58
  biggest blocker on the handset side and what strategy you know
• 22:02
  is your company implementing to ensure that handset and chipset
• 22:06
  adoption keeps pace with your network readiness?
• 22:12
  Yeah. So if we look at the device
• 22:14
  availability for MSS spectrum, there's a very, there's a very
• 22:19
  limited amount of devices at this time because there's very
• 22:22
  limited capabilities that these satellites can offer today.
• 22:25
  But as we get to the point where we're offering near broadband, I
• 22:29
  think that the OEMs are going to open up to where you start out
• 22:32
  with the flagship devices, which you're seeing some of with
• 22:35
  Samsung and and Pixel and and Apple with the proprietary
• 22:38
  waveforms. And it will eventually get down
• 22:41
  to where anyone who buys a device, whether it's a smart
• 22:43
  watch or a, or a phone or an IoT device, basically it will be
• 22:47
  embedded in everything. So we go from our legacy, the
• 22:50
  legacy MSS operators total there's a few million devices
• 22:55
  that are offering service today. This will move to the point
• 22:58
  where we've got billions of devices that all can connect.
• 23:00
  Maybe they aren't all paying for connectivity, but it's it's
• 23:03
  there and it's latent. And I and probably in the early
• 23:06
  twenty 30s, mid 2030 fives, you'll be at the point where it
• 23:10
  was just about every smartphone, every device will be able to
• 23:13
  talk to both cellular and satellite.
• 23:15
  And that just opens up a massive market opportunity for everyone.
• 23:21
  So we're building a low band constellation first.
• 23:24
  And so the low band constellation has the ability to
• 23:27
  switch between all, all the major frequencies in low band
• 23:30
  that are in the phones today. So in the US for instance, we
• 23:34
  brought together AT&T and Verizon who are jointly
• 23:36
  contributing 850 megahertz spectrum to our network.
• 23:40
  And so our satellites ability is 850 spectrum in the US as well
• 23:44
  as 700 megahertz spectrum, which is first net AT&T in the US and
• 23:47
  around the world we can use lots of different low band spectrum
• 23:50
  that's already on the phone today.
• 23:51
  So it's important I think to the earlier point that you know, the
• 23:56
  backwards compatibility so that you can do today's phone is
• 24:00
  important and then over time you can supplement it with MSS
• 24:03
  frequencies, which is why we've we've made our our acquisitions
• 24:06
  in the MSS throughout 2025. And that's another key enabler
• 24:12
  to to, you know, offering DDD connectivity in the market today
• 24:16
  is really the spectrum access piece.
• 24:18
  We see approvals are still uneven across different markets
• 24:21
  even with recent moves to secure MSS rights.
• 24:24
  So in your opinion, what is currently the biggest regulatory
• 24:28
  bottleneck that you're seeing today?
• 24:32
  Well, for a reading we don't have much because we have
• 24:34
  spectrum. So that that's when you have
• 24:37
  spectrum that's it's easy. But I mean, I do think there's
• 24:39
  gonna be a lot of challenges for others going forward, especially
• 24:42
  as global rights to ensure that, you know, a lot of these, a lot
• 24:45
  of our partners, especially the mobility markets, they need to
• 24:48
  ensure that it works wherever you go versus a localized or a
• 24:51
  country solution. So for those going after
• 24:54
  spectrum, it will be interesting in the world's changing.
• 24:56
  Right now, a lot of it is becoming a little bit more
• 24:58
  nationalized and people not wanting to share as much as it
• 25:01
  used to be. So I think there will be a lot
• 25:03
  more challenges out there as people go after certain spectrum
• 25:06
  rights and how that's utilized and shared.
• 25:10
  I would just add that a, a lot of the regulators see this as an
• 25:13
  opportunity where they say, oh, now instead of just a few
• 25:16
  100,000 devices in my country, every device can connect to, to
• 25:20
  the satellite network using this these frequency bands.
• 25:22
  So I think there's a little bit of risk of regulators thinking
• 25:25
  that this is something that we can now, you know, even with
• 25:29
  Iridium Global Star, ViaSat, we're already licensed in these
• 25:32
  markets for this NBIOT or 5G and R waveforms.
• 25:38
  There may be additional requirements that could come
• 25:40
  down. It's not in Europe, not in the
• 25:42
  US, but there are that it is going to be a blocker to full
• 25:45
  global coverage. Yeah.
• 25:47
  I would just add a little bit to that.
• 25:50
  First of all, you know, certainly agree with what has
• 25:54
  been said, but there is a lag in various countries around the
• 25:59
  world as far as, you know, just getting the infrastructure as
• 26:02
  far as the regulations in place the that we can rely on to make
• 26:09
  sure that we have a stable licensing framework.
• 26:12
  So that is really, I mean, there's certainly leaders around
• 26:15
  the world that have done this in Europe and, and in the United
• 26:18
  States, of course, but we really do need to see the movement much
• 26:23
  more quickly. There are some places around the
• 26:26
  world that actually just say, OK, you know, yeah, we think
• 26:29
  this is a good idea. And just we're going to write a
• 26:30
  little note and say that it's it's good because they really
• 26:33
  need the connectivity. But most countries are going to
• 26:36
  have to put in a framework. And that's just time, right?
• 26:40
  And time is money and time is service to customers.
• 26:45
  Yeah, I agree with everything. That said, spectrum is our
• 26:49
  lifeblood. You know, our senior operators
• 26:52
  up here, we've been operating over the same few megahertz of
• 26:55
  spectrum for well over 2 decades and we plan to continue to do
• 27:00
  so. And we do that globally.
• 27:03
  It takes spectrum and it takes a very good relationships with the
• 27:07
  regulators around the world that are going to license our
• 27:10
  operations to use that spectrum. And as we show with D to D that
• 27:17
  that connectivity is now universal, that everyone's quite
• 27:22
  frankly the public's you know their view of of what it means
• 27:25
  to be connected and what their expectations are are forever
• 27:28
  changed. As you know, Scott, as you said,
• 27:32
  people want their phones to work and and we're here to make sure
• 27:35
  that they do. Regardless of where you are,
• 27:38
  regardless of your circumstance, regardless of what may have just
• 27:41
  happened to the terrestrial network, your phone will still
• 27:45
  work. So that takes spectrum, that
• 27:49
  takes billions of dollars of investment and it takes
• 27:52
  regulatory certainty to put those business plans together
• 27:55
  and then execute them and hope that over the coming years,
• 28:00
  potentially decades that you, you know, you, you make it back
• 28:05
  so that you can do what launch more satellites and get ready
• 28:08
  for your next generation constellation.
• 28:12
  Timeline is certainly key. And Amy, I think you said it
• 28:14
  well too. You know, time to market is
• 28:16
  going to be so dependent on the way the regulations shape out.
• 28:19
  So putting regulation timelines aside, happy to hear thoughts
• 28:23
  from all the panelists on where you expect to see your DDD
• 28:26
  capabilities to be in a year or two.
• 28:28
  And I may or may not hold you to that at CS 2027.
• 28:34
  For ViaSat, we already have NBIOT service offered today over
• 28:40
  certain geographical markets. So we expect to see that
• 28:42
  expanded. We expect to see there's been a
• 28:44
  lot of talk here about, you know, direct to handset and
• 28:47
  handset services, but there are a lot of market verticals that
• 28:51
  can use the same spectrum and use the same satellites and are
• 28:55
  today, whether it's cockpit communications or it's maritime
• 28:58
  communications for safety. So as as we move forward, we're
• 29:02
  looking at expanding the number of devices that can actually
• 29:05
  connect to our network and then expanding the service
• 29:08
  capabilities. So one one of the nice things
• 29:11
  about allele constellation is that you can launch more
• 29:14
  satellites, different orbital planes and increase improve the
• 29:18
  service quality, which means that your spend profile is
• 29:21
  changing as there's devices, as there's revenue.
• 29:24
  So you'll see a constant evolution and and increase in
• 29:27
  improvement of the services over time.
• 29:30
  Yeah. So for link I, I would say our
• 29:33
  combined link, the Omni space SES venture will evolve over the
• 29:39
  next two to three years. I, I would say the very, very
• 29:42
  nice thing about having SES as a partner is we're going to be
• 29:45
  able to use the multi orbit infrastructure to do some things
• 29:49
  a little bit quicker. So, so that is a, a huge
• 29:53
  advantage for, for particular services.
• 29:56
  So I'd say about two to three years it'll start out as you
• 30:00
  know he was saying with lighter services as as we start out
• 30:05
  because you can only do so much with you know, the satellites
• 30:08
  until you have full, full complement of satellites for the
• 30:13
  seamless connectivity. We're supporting substantial D
• 30:19
  to D connectivity today and our capabilities will only improve
• 30:23
  with the investments that we're making and the plans that we've
• 30:28
  announced. And for us, I mean this is our
• 30:32
  big year for the intend direct launch with many more
• 30:35
  announcements and things to come as as that service and continues
• 30:38
  to build out. I do think the one thing, you
• 30:41
  know, we're going to start slowly with messaging and I
• 30:43
  think that's my key part to how we manage this as a, as an
• 30:47
  industry as well. We've done this in the late 90s
• 30:50
  where people over promised and under delivered and, and set
• 30:53
  expectations higher than what satellites can do.
• 30:56
  There's still physics, there is still constraints on getting
• 30:59
  signals through certain areas and aspects into these
• 31:02
  buildings. So I think as an industry, we
• 31:04
  all need to be cautious. And I, I do agree it's going to
• 31:07
  take time and over over the years we will build this up and,
• 31:10
  and it will become much more of a given that people have
• 31:14
  connectivity where they are, where they are.
• 31:15
  And then it, that connectivity continues to grow as it has over
• 31:18
  the last, you know, 20 plus years.
• 31:20
  But I think we do need to be careful and cautious that we do
• 31:23
  this well and that we continue to show that satellites can be a
• 31:27
  dominant player in all connectivity in partnerships
• 31:31
  with M&O and terrestrial. And at AST Space Mobile, we've
• 31:36
  been trying to collect the ingredients to to to get to the
• 31:40
  finish line and those ingredients.
• 31:42
  And when you look through the history or capital spectrum
• 31:46
  network customers and the ability to produce the network
• 31:50
  and create the network and build the satellites.
• 31:51
  And so we're vertically integrated.
• 31:53
  We've got over 3 billion of cash and liquidity to build 100
• 31:56
  satellites we need over the next one or two year time frame.
• 32:00
  We've got the partnerships so we can attack the consumer market
• 32:04
  as well as all the other markets around it.
• 32:06
  And for us, we're very close to enabling the ground capability,
• 32:11
  which will allow us to integrate the capability as we get more
• 32:14
  satellites in orbit. So for us there's there's many
• 32:17
  different pieces and in addition to the regulatory piece that was
• 32:19
  just described that has been part of our program over the
• 32:22
  last decade and they're coming together in 2026 in a very
• 32:25
  meaningful way. And achieving these milestones
• 32:29
  will mean, you know, one step closer to profitability.
• 32:31
  So even with clear demand from early demonstrations,
• 32:35
  willingness to pay signals that we've three seen through several
• 32:38
  surveys that have been conducted in the industry, Another key
• 32:41
  question really remains as to whether the unit economics still
• 32:44
  hold. So maybe for for some of the
• 32:46
  Greenfield constellations here, what leading indicator will tell
• 32:50
  you that profitability is becoming real.
• 32:53
  So maybe, Scott, I'll lean on you to get us started.
• 32:57
  Well, the dream of a constellation is an incredible
• 32:59
  dream. It's always been an incredible
• 33:00
  dream. And the key is how do you get it
• 33:02
  built and do you have the right tack into the unit economics
• 33:05
  work and and we think they do. We think the key unlock here is
• 33:11
  access to the 6 billion phones in the world through the M and
• 33:15
  OS who have hundreds of millions of subscribers each and doing it
• 33:18
  in a low friction way. And we think that the demand for
• 33:21
  connectivity is, is incredibly, it's increasing every year, it's
• 33:26
  insatiable, it's growing with every generation.
• 33:28
  So we believe that that demand is significant.
• 33:32
  The market surveys you mentioned that are public as well as
• 33:35
  everyone else's that have been done privately, including with
• 33:38
  over 50 M&O partners we have globally indicate that it's
• 33:41
  going to be there. And so for us, you need the
• 33:44
  demand. Obviously, we think the markets
• 33:46
  going to be 10s of billions of dollars at the end of the day
• 33:48
  and you need the unit economics. And for us it's about getting
• 33:51
  satellites up in orbit and being able to support that fixed cost
• 33:56
  base which which which we think we have.
• 33:59
  And so for us, the, the, the flow through margins are going
• 34:02
  to be incredible for this, even if the demand is a fraction of
• 34:05
  what we think it is and we think the demand is, is going to be
• 34:08
  pretty incredible. Yeah.
• 34:10
  So for us, I mean, I think building efficiently and making
• 34:14
  sure that we, you know, have those partnerships that that are
• 34:19
  demanding as you, as Scott said, this service, I think you will
• 34:23
  you have seen over the last year this switch in the market from
• 34:29
  on the M&O side from hey, this is kind of a cool marketing tool
• 34:33
  to something that you kind of have to have as as part of your
• 34:36
  service. God forbid, you know, somebody
• 34:39
  loses service or they can't get, you know, to 911 or the E call
• 34:43
  system in in Europe, for example.
• 34:45
  So this is a critical piece of the infrastructure right now.
• 34:50
  And I think that the M&O side is seeing that and I think that is
• 34:53
  the most leading indicator for us that this is going to be a
• 34:56
  successful business. You know from, from vice that
• 35:01
  side we today operating on multiple orders of magnitude
• 35:05
  less bandwidth have multiple very large businesses.
• 35:09
  And when you combine that all and you look at what can you do
• 35:11
  if you if you offer 1000 times more capacity, but don't give
• 35:16
  1000 times the discount. So we, we see a big opportunity
• 35:20
  in the space of, you know, evolving our mobile satellite
• 35:24
  services that we've got today and improving those capabilities
• 35:28
  where then as devices come online, as we unlock MNO
• 35:31
  partnerships, automotive partnerships, IoT, many
• 35:36
  different IoT use cases, we can see that that revenue grow and
• 35:39
  the amount of connections grow. So we're looking at what can we
• 35:42
  do from that legacy base and then how can we look at, you
• 35:45
  know, the amount of connections we grow over time in the given
• 35:48
  markets that we're operating in? And Speaking of profitability,
• 35:52
  you know, and also looking at the other players that are in
• 35:55
  the market, you know, Starling being commercially active in
• 35:58
  several different countries over the past year and kind of being
• 36:00
  a front runner in the DDD landscape.
• 36:03
  How do you see your solution being unique and and what kind
• 36:08
  of approach are you taking to the market to really position
• 36:10
  yourself well going forward in the DDD landscape?
• 36:16
  I think from Global Star's perspective, we're, you know,
• 36:19
  we're in an enviable position because a substantial portion of
• 36:22
  the capacity over our current system and the system that we
• 36:26
  plan to launch is already spoken for.
• 36:30
  So I, I do believe that we will continue to provide, you know, a
• 36:34
  basic level of connectivity globally at a price point that
• 36:40
  is is competitive. So that's what we plan to do.
• 36:46
  So I would say this is a big market.
• 36:49
  You know, yes, Starlink has a little bit of a a head start,
• 36:54
  but I do think that there is room for a number of us in the
• 36:57
  in the marketplace. I think there is a demand from
• 37:00
  the rest of the world that is looking for more than one
• 37:03
  player. So I don't necessarily see this
• 37:07
  being a monopoly. I think everybody up here is is
• 37:10
  certainly working to make make sure that that doesn't happen.
• 37:14
  I think also for, you know, the market to grow and thrive and
• 37:19
  you know, be able to offer those new and innovative services you
• 37:22
  need the competition out there. And I think regulators by the
• 37:25
  way, also recognize that. So I, I'm pretty confident that
• 37:29
  this is, this is going to be a multiplayer market for the GDD,
• 37:36
  you know, group of, of companies.
• 37:38
  So, you know, I think, I think things will be fine.
• 37:43
  Yeah. I mean, I think there there's
• 37:45
  not going to be a winner take all also because there's not
• 37:47
  enough capacity from anyone player given the amount of
• 37:51
  spectrum that they have to actually be able to offer
• 37:53
  service in every single vertical that is going to be requiring
• 37:57
  the service. And there are many, you know,
• 37:59
  when, when AI comes, when autonomous mobiles come, you
• 38:03
  know, there's just a lot of different things that are going
• 38:05
  to require a ton of bandwidth that no single provider will be
• 38:08
  able to to offer. And if we look at inflam
• 38:10
  connectivity, which they were just on the last panel, you
• 38:14
  know, Vice that's been in that space for a while, we took over
• 38:17
  from a lot of the market share from another competitor, Gogo.
• 38:21
  And even with additional new entrants, we're still able to
• 38:24
  maintain a large market position because there's, there's the
• 38:28
  consumers value choice and in that case the airline's value
• 38:30
  choice. So we just see a lot of these
• 38:32
  verticals where you know there's going to be multiple partners,
• 38:35
  multiple players, and it'll allow us to all win at the end
• 38:38
  of the day because of how big the market is.
• 38:41
  Yeah. And I agree with that sentiment.
• 38:43
  I mean I think there is, there is definitely indicators.
• 38:45
  You see it from a lot of the agreements already signed with
• 38:47
  multiple companies up here. M and OS definitely want to have
• 38:50
  options. They want to have multiple
• 38:52
  companies to go to. I mean for Radium, this is just
• 38:55
  one slice of our entire business.
• 38:57
  We've got a lot of other vertical verticals and markets
• 38:59
  that we address. And for us the investment is
• 39:01
  small compared to a Greenfield, right.
• 39:03
  We already have a network, we already have existing cat free
• 39:06
  cash flow coming in. And so this is for us, the
• 39:09
  return that we need to make is quite different than a, you
• 39:12
  know, doing a big Greenfield. But I think there is it's
• 39:15
  exciting. It's it's interesting to see all
• 39:17
  the big players coming in. Spectrum is still been shown to
• 39:21
  be the most critical thing to have, and global access to that
• 39:24
  spectrum is really important as well, especially when you're
• 39:26
  talking about connectivity to things that move and you want to
• 39:29
  make sure that whatever that is that's moving can have services
• 39:32
  wherever they are. Well, I started my career in
• 39:37
  data centers and towers, what's called digital infrastructure
• 39:41
  and there's multiple operators and and it's because they're
• 39:44
  working with multiple operators in each market.
• 39:47
  Every market has three or four cellular operators or base,
• 39:49
  different spectrum, different requirements.
• 39:51
  So it's going to be a multi operator landscape for sure.
• 39:55
  What differentiates us is a broadband first approach, a
• 40:00
  purpose built direct device constellation.
• 40:03
  We're not adding on to a fixed broadband business.
• 40:06
  We are purpose built for the operators.
• 40:09
  The mobile network operators have been in the room with us
• 40:11
  building this network, investing in US mutually exclusive
• 40:15
  contracts, long term contracts with us over a billion dollars
• 40:19
  of cumulative committed revenue signed to date.
• 40:22
  So our our differentiation is vertical integration on the
• 40:26
  production side, which gives us speed access to the capital
• 40:30
  markets as a public company, which gives us capital being
• 40:34
  able to access both cellular spectrum and MSS spectrum as of
• 40:38
  2025 and doing that in a way that's good for the M and OS.
• 40:42
  We, we have made ourselves very useful to the operators so that
• 40:47
  they can get benefit from us. They get marketing benefits as
• 40:49
  was stated. We are a revenue engine for them
• 40:52
  and doing that all while doing it through their system that
• 40:56
  they've built and standing on the shoulders of those giants
• 40:59
  that have built this incredible network that we all rely on.
• 41:02
  We all forget that we used to not have cell phones, right?
• 41:04
  I mean, over the last 30 years, we've gotten a computer that
• 41:08
  gives us all the world's information and a cell phone
• 41:10
  that lets us talk to everybody. So it's an incredible thing and
• 41:13
  we look to build on that and we think that we've designed a
• 41:16
  mousetrap that does it just just the right way.
• 41:20
  Thanks, Scott. Thank you everyone as well.
• 41:22
  We're coming to the end of our session here today.
• 41:24
  So special thanks to the panelists and all those who
• 41:27
  tended for making this such a great conversation.
• 41:29
  And I wish you a great rest of the week at CES.
• 41:33
  Thank you.