Latest / AST SpaceMobile Podcast / AST SpaceMobile Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Transcript
- 0:07Is the AST space. Mobile.
- 0:09Podcast and we just basically from the phone be seamless
- 0:14regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to
- 0:17know that it's connected by satellite.
- 0:22Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
- 0:27Good day and thank you for standing by.
- 0:29Welcome to AST Space Mobile's First Quarter 2026 Business
- 0:33Update. Please be advised that today's
- 0:35call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference
- 0:38over to Max Colbert, Investor Relations Manager of ASP Space
- 0:42Mobile. Thank you.
- 0:43You may begin. Thank you and good afternoon
- 0:47everyone. Today I'm also joined by
- 0:49Chairman and CEO of Bell Avalon, President, Scott Wisniewski and
- 0:52CFO and Chief Legal Officer, Andy Johnson.
- 0:55Let me refer you to slide two of the presentation which contains
- 0:58our Safe Harbor disclaimer. During today's call, we may make
- 1:01certain forward-looking statements.
- 1:03These statements are based on current expectations and
- 1:05assumptions and as a result are subject to risks and
- 1:08uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual
- 1:11events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements
- 1:14on this call. For more information about these
- 1:16risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Risk Factors
- 1:19section of AST Space Mobile's Annual Report on Form 10K for
- 1:23the year end December 31, 2025 with the Securities and Exchange
- 1:27Commission and other documents filed by AST Space Mobile with
- 1:31the SEC. From time to time, also after
- 1:34our initial remarks, we will be starting our Q&A section with
- 1:37questions submitted in advance by our shareholders.
- 1:41For those of you who may be new to our company and mission,
- 1:43there are nearly 6 billion mobile phones today around the
- 1:45world, but many of us still experience gaps in coverage as
- 1:48we live, work and travel. Additionally, there are billions
- 1:52of people without cellular broadband and who remain
- 1:54unconnected to the global economy.
- 1:56The markets we are pursuing at AST Space Mobile are massive and
- 2:00the problem we are solving is important and touches nearly all
- 2:03of us. In this backdrop, AST Space
- 2:05Mobile was building the first and only global cellular
- 2:08broadband network in space to operate directly with everyday
- 2:11unmodified mobile devices supported by our extensive IP
- 2:15and patent portfolio. It is now my pleasure to pass
- 2:18this over to Chairman and CEO, Bell Avalon, who will go through
- 2:21our activities since our last public update.
- 2:24Thank you Max. St.
- 2:26Space Mobile start to 2026 reflect our progress in scaling
- 2:30manufacturing and production mobile network operator partner
- 2:34expansion, grand network integration, multi partner
- 2:37launch and a fortress capital position.
- 2:41This advancement across nearly all initiative help solidify why
- 2:46St. Space Mobile is the only company
- 2:48whose technology is position to capture the direct to device
- 2:51seller of robot opportunity in full.
- 2:54We continue to execute on key business objectives at the
- 2:58company transitioning from R&D stage to fully scale operational
- 3:03deployment. On the manufacturing front, we
- 3:07have over half a million square feet of manufacturing and
- 3:10operations space globally. As we continue to scale our
- 3:14manufacturing effort where in advanced stages of producing an
- 3:17assembly through Bluebird 33, we face a race completed through
- 3:22Bluebird 28. A detailed cadence of our 25 and
- 3:2626 deployment plan is shown in the accompany quarterly
- 3:30presentation found on our IR website.
- 3:34Our 95% vertically integrated manufacturing strategy is
- 3:39significant long term advantage with our manufacturing team
- 3:43ramping up significantly over the past several quarters.
- 3:47I am thrilled to report that the leadership we have in place is
- 3:51now producing Microns space arrays, stackable satellite
- 3:55composite structure at an accelerating pace to support our
- 4:00target cadence of 6 fully assembly satellites per month.
- 4:04Our custom ASIC is designed to support up to 10 gigahertz of
- 4:08processing bandwidth per satellite and is expected to
- 4:11nearly double the peak data speed recently achieved using
- 4:15our own Orbit Block 1 Bluebird satellites, helping unlock
- 4:20through space based cellular functionality and enabling
- 4:23native cellular capabilities that consumers now expect
- 4:27everywhere all the time. As a reminder, we're building
- 4:31the largest phase array in low Earth orbit.
- 4:35We possess the ability to deploy significant power to orbit and
- 4:40meaningful at a meaningful scale and competitive cost.
- 4:44They give us an ample opportunity to scale our space
- 4:47based cellular broadband correlation based on demand
- 4:50signal from our growing lease of partners.
- 4:53That is a unique important concept for the direct to device
- 4:56industry with even broader implications as the space become
- 5:00an energy rich and data native industrial environment.
- 5:05We continue to leverage these advantages by driving innovation
- 5:09into every aspect of our satellite capabilities.
- 5:12We are deploying specific AI edge computing and AAI spectrum
- 5:19management features for on orbit capabilities to incorporate into
- 5:24novel AI platforms and maximize user experience.
- 5:29We currently expect to integrate these features into our next
- 5:32generation Bluebird satellite targeting Bluebirds in
- 5:35production by year end. Our multiple provider orbital
- 5:41launch strategy feature orbital launch aboard Blue Origin,
- 5:45SpaceX and others as a reflection of our multi partner
- 5:49launch strategy. While returning to the launchpad
- 5:52at the Cape Canaveral in mid June with Blue Birds 89 and 10
- 5:58aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
- 6:00We are excited to get back to the launchpad very soon and are
- 6:05targeting approximately 45 satellites in orbit by year end
- 6:10through a combination of our launch providers.
- 6:13Our ground based gateway architecture act as a native
- 6:17extension of our network operator partners interfacing
- 6:20directly with Nokia, Inovis and MNO cores over standard 3 GPP
- 6:25protocols. This means our gateways
- 6:27architecture and or satellites network scales natively with
- 6:324G5G and future 6G standards, reducing network integration
- 6:37complexity. We're actively scaling our
- 6:40ground network integration efforts around the world,
- 6:43including in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India,
- 6:48Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Japan,
- 6:54New Zealand, the Philippines, Code War, Kenya, Nigeria and
- 6:59Senegal, targeting a combined population of 2.9 billion
- 7:04people. It is an incredible feat to
- 7:07scale our business outside of the United States, an effort
- 7:10which requires significant scale and commitment from our company,
- 7:14our partners and global regulators.
- 7:18We continue to make progress on on partner and ecosystem network
- 7:21integration and we move closer to service activation in key
- 7:25partner markets. We're actively deploying
- 7:28hundreds of fixed sales per week.
- 7:31As part of this effort were achieved satellite to satellite
- 7:34cellular broadband connectivity handoff without disrupting to
- 7:39the connectivity experience on the smartphones.
- 7:42Additionally, we recently achieved big data speed of an
- 7:46incredible 98.9 megabits per second using our Inorbit blog
- 7:52one satellites this. Latest record.
- 7:57Was conducted over international waters directly to unmodified
- 8:02off the shelf smartphones. This achievement is significant
- 8:07for several reason if other validate that our satellite
- 8:10technology is the only one specifically designed for space
- 8:14based direct to device cellular broadband achieving these speeds
- 8:19that our partners expect for the customer no matter where they
- 8:22are located everywhere in the planet.
- 8:26And we're just getting started. We expect our own Orbit Block 2
- 8:30Bluebird satellite to nearly double the peak data speed
- 8:33recently achieved using our own Orbit Block 1 Bluebird satellite
- 8:38when enabled with an office spectrum on a region by region
- 8:42basis. St.
- 8:44Space Mobile is mobile network operator partner of choice for
- 8:49space based cellular broadband because our Bandpipe system
- 8:52integration solution work natively with existing
- 8:55terrestrial infrastructure and is designed to support a space
- 8:58based cellular broadband connectivity.
- 9:02Our ecosystem includes nearly 60 global MNO partners covering
- 9:06over 3 billion subscribers, including key partners like
- 9:10AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten, STC, Bell Canada and
- 9:16Telus. Our commercial advancements have
- 9:20enabled us to secure over 1.2 billion in contracted revenue
- 9:25commitment from our commercial partners and we plan to
- 9:28accelerate this as we further deploy our network.
- 9:33On the regulatory front, we're granted FCC authorization to
- 9:36operate our Bluebird satellite constellation commercially in
- 9:39the United States, enabling direct to device connectivity in
- 9:42the US on premium low band spectrum in coordination with
- 9:46our partners Verizon, AT&T and Firstnet.
- 9:49The grant also reflect the FCC recognition of our ability to
- 9:53deliver direct to device cellular robot connectivity from
- 9:56space and operate alongside terrestrial communication
- 9:59network, further validating our unique technology and network
- 10:04design. We thank the current
- 10:07administration, the FCC and Commissioner Carr for his
- 10:12leadership in bringing new technologies online to advise
- 10:15United States leadership in space.
- 10:19Our comprehensive spectrum strategy leverage our satellite
- 10:23technology which is capable of tuning within approximately 1100
- 10:28megahertz of low band and mid band tunable MNO spectrum
- 10:31globally, including 45 megahertz of MSN lower mid band spectrum
- 10:36and 60 megahertz of license S band spectrum priority right
- 10:40outside of North America. In particular, the 45 megahertz
- 10:44of L band spectrum is currently on use providing us with an
- 10:48ample opportunity to drive business again the use of that
- 10:51spectrum. Additionally, the lower mid band
- 10:53L band spectrum feature higher quality propagation
- 10:57characteristics when compared to other MSS frequencies.
- 11:01This means more opportunities to grow subscriber capacity and
- 11:05bring additional service to targeted markets around the
- 11:09world. Alongside our M&O partners, we
- 11:13expect the combination of our satellite technology featuring
- 11:16the largest phase array in loaded orbits and access to MNO
- 11:21chair spectrum, MSS spectrum and AI spectrum management features
- 11:26will enable us to effectively multiply spectrum efficiencies
- 11:31and develop a completely new layer of connectivity on a
- 11:34global scale. The combination of building a
- 11:39native space based cellular broadband network with our
- 11:42partners first integration design is second to none while
- 11:46supported by our extensive IP and patent portfolio of
- 11:49approximately 3900 patents and patent pending claims and we
- 11:55successfully advanced from early stage R&D to scale deployment of
- 11:59satellites and ground based gateways.
- 12:02In closing, our company has key assets including IP
- 12:06manufacturing, partnerships, spectrum and balance sheet cash
- 12:12with approximately 3.5 billion to build and launch over 100
- 12:17Bluebird satellites to enable global coverage, office space,
- 12:22mobile service. Our team is focused discipline
- 12:25and executing against our deployment plan.
- 12:28We're encouraged by the progress we're making and the momentum we
- 12:32see across our commercial, regulatory and government
- 12:37initiatives. And with that, I will turn the
- 12:39call back to Scott. Thank you, Abel.
- 12:44Since our last business update 10 weeks ago, we have continued
- 12:47to execute against the broader commercialization priorities we
- 12:49laid out at the start of the year.
- 12:52Our key task leading the business is to leverage our
- 12:54revolutionary technology deployment and best in class
- 12:57partnerships to achieve our 2026 and 2027 revenue objectives as
- 13:02we build out the revenue platform for the company to
- 13:05maximize long term shareholder value.
- 13:09The market pull for our network, the one we're deploying today, a
- 13:12global resilient space based cellular broadband network with
- 13:16dual use capabilities, it remains extremely strong.
- 13:20Against this backdrop, we have recently signed additional
- 13:23mobile network operator contracts and received
- 13:25additional U.S. government awards. 1st, we announced an
- 13:30agreement with Telus as our second partner in Canada, who
- 13:33also made an equity investment in ASTS.
- 13:35Telus and Bell will be our commercial partners in Canada
- 13:39and in Africa. We are pleased to be partnering
- 13:42with Axiom Telecom, a Pan African operator in 11 different
- 13:45countries, joining our existing agreements with Vodacom, Orange
- 13:50and MTN. Our dialogue globally with
- 13:53mobile network operators has increased in both volume and
- 13:56depth, and we've been building out the broad organizational
- 13:59capabilities to support the rollout of Commercial Services
- 14:01in these markets. Looking ahead, we expect
- 14:05additional M&O agreements to be signed with increasing velocity
- 14:08throughout 2026. On the US government side, we
- 14:13continue to grow the pipeline with three additional awards
- 14:16through Prime contractors. These awards address 3 unique
- 14:20use cases across secure communications and non
- 14:23communications capabilities, reflecting strong proof points
- 14:26ahead of larger contracts. Alongside further developing
- 14:30these important national security capabilities, including
- 14:33those related to Golden Dome, these awards are expected to
- 14:36contribute significantly to 2026 revenue objectives.
- 14:41As a reminder, our goal across all our contracts is to develop
- 14:45capabilities that could grow into programs of record with
- 14:48billions of annual revenue potential in aggregate over the
- 14:51medium and long term for missions important to US
- 14:54National Security. As a commitment to these
- 14:58efforts, we've made significant progress expanding our
- 15:02organizational capabilities through AST Space, Mobile's
- 15:05wholly owned government and defense subsidiary.
- 15:09This alignment enables us to better allocate resources and
- 15:12expand our organizational capabilities to best serve the
- 15:14US government customer. Transitioning to revenue.
- 15:19We achieved nearly 15,000,000 in reported revenue during Q1,
- 15:22again driven by milestone achievements under our U.S.
- 15:25government contracts and commercial gateway deliveries to
- 15:28M and OS. On the commercial side, we saw
- 15:32execution with four different customers that contributed to
- 15:34revenue in the quarter. With the hardware to deliver
- 15:38initial Commercial Services now in their respective regions
- 15:41across 5 continents, the ground readiness initiatives that A
- 15:44Bell referenced are firmly underway.
- 15:46This is an important step to have started during 2025 because
- 15:49it gives the teams on the ground time to prepare, deploy real
- 15:53hardware solutions for backhaul and integrate with customer
- 15:56network cores. This is a very significant
- 15:59operational effort that is an important leading indicator
- 16:02ahead of commercial service activation. 2026 revenue will
- 16:07benefit from this commercial deployment effort as we deliver
- 16:10against existing contractual orders and sign new contract
- 16:14wins, both of which show a deep pipeline.
- 16:18Turning to revenue from our U.S. government business, we executed
- 16:21across 5 existing contracts during the quarter, further
- 16:24demonstrating the in orbit capabilities of our Bluebird
- 16:27satellites. To give you some additional
- 16:30color, we advanced milestones under our prime contract with
- 16:33the Space Development Agency as part of the Europa Track 2
- 16:37Commercial Solutions program under Halo.
- 16:40This work is focused on delivering operationally
- 16:42relevant tactical communications capabilities directly to
- 16:46government and devices. We also advanced our
- 16:50communications efforts with milestones against contracts
- 16:53where Fairwinds is the prime contractor, some of which is a
- 16:56follow on related to our previously demonstrated NTN
- 16:59tactical SACCOM capabilities. That field test showcased real
- 17:04time connectivity to a tactical assault kit over AVPN with
- 17:08multimedia streaming via the tactical assault kit and secure
- 17:11multi party video calls all executed on standard unmodified
- 17:15smartphones with active participation from US Indo
- 17:18Paycom including representation from multiple branches of the
- 17:21United States Armed Services. Lastly, we also continue to
- 17:27execute against our contract with the Space Development
- 17:28Agency through a prime contractor for non
- 17:31communications on orbit testing and capability development.
- 17:37The progress we are seeing across both commercial and
- 17:39government activities supports our confidence in reiterating
- 17:42our 2026 revenue guidance of 150 million to $200 million.
- 17:48This outlook is supported by our existing contracted pipeline
- 17:51with additional upside potential from new government awards.
- 17:56What we are seeing in the first half of 2026 is continued
- 17:58progress in building out the revenue base ahead of a large
- 18:01jump in 2027. As I described in the last call,
- 18:05we see the 2027 revenue opportunity approaching a
- 18:08billion dollars comprised of revenue both long term,
- 18:11contracted or highly recurring in nature.
- 18:14We expect this gross to be driven from one, our scaled
- 18:18network in orbit for cellular broadband service as it becomes
- 18:22available in some of the largest markets worldwide and two,
- 18:25providing one or more increasingly scaled use cases
- 18:29for the US government. Taken together, we are steadily
- 18:33executing across our key priorities remaining focused on
- 18:36the critical near term objectives like revenue
- 18:38generation, partner ecosystem and scaled network deployment.
- 18:43I'm now happy to pass the call over to Andy to walk through our
- 18:46financial update. Thanks, Scott, and good
- 18:49afternoon everyone. During the first quarter of
- 18:522026, we began executing against our annual revenue plan.
- 18:57We continued our manufacturing expansion across our growing
- 19:01facilities in Texas and beyond. And importantly, as discussed on
- 19:05our 2025 year end call in March, we took significant steps to
- 19:10raise critical capital to enable funding our constellation in
- 19:14support of our bold objectives in the months ahead.
- 19:17Revenue in Q1 came in consistent with our internal plans.
- 19:22We expect revenue to build sequentially each quarter during
- 19:252026 with contributions from both commercial gateway revenue
- 19:30and U.S. government contracts, which I will discuss further in
- 19:33just a moment. Importantly, we remain on track
- 19:36to meet our full year 2026 revenue guidance of 150 to $200
- 19:41million. With respect to manufacturing,
- 19:45we continue to progress toward the achievement of our goals to
- 19:48support our active escalating launch schedule through the end
- 19:51of this year and beyond. We currently have Bluebird 11 to
- 19:55Bluebird 33 in advanced stages of assembly with phased arrays
- 20:00completed through Bluebird 28. Our manufacturing progress
- 20:04positions us well to support our launch target of approximately
- 20:0945 Bluebird satellites in orbit. By the end of 2026, the strength
- 20:15of our balance sheet positions us to complete the full build
- 20:18out and launch of a constellation of over 100
- 20:21Bluebird satellites to provide worldwide space mobile service,
- 20:25while also funding the deployment of our controlled
- 20:28spectrum bands on a global basis.
- 20:31Monetizing the capabilities of our proprietary technology to
- 20:35capture the evolving commercial opportunities related to
- 20:38artificial intelligence. Enhancing investment in
- 20:41government space opportunities in in the United States,
- 20:45reducing our higher interest debt and pursuing opportunistic
- 20:48investments to accelerate our space mobile services and
- 20:51capabilities. AST Space Mobile is proud to be
- 20:55the creator and leader in the direct to device industry and we
- 20:59continue making investments to move quickly and responsibly to
- 21:03bring space based cellular broadband connectivity directly
- 21:07to unmodified smartphones. Our intentional focus on
- 21:10investing in operational growth led to higher adjusted operating
- 21:15expenses in Q1 of 2026, consistent with our expectations
- 21:20previously communicated during our fourth quarter and full year
- 21:232025 earnings call. Moving to the operating and
- 21:27capital metrics slide, let's review the key metrics for the
- 21:30first quarter in more detail. On the 1st chart.
- 21:34For the first quarter of 2026, we incurred non GAAP adjusted
- 21:38operating expenses of $91.2 million versus 95.7 million in
- 21:44the fourth quarter of 2025. As a reminder, non GAAAP
- 21:49adjusted operating expenses exclude non cash operating costs
- 21:53including depreciation and amortization and stock based
- 21:57compensation. The quarter over quarter
- 21:59decrease of $4.5 million resulted primarily from a $17.6
- 22:04million decrease in adjusted cost of revenues due to lower
- 22:09revenue in the quarter, together with a $1.9 million decrease in
- 22:14R&D costs, partially offset by a $9.2 million increase in
- 22:18adjusted engineering services cost and a $5.8 million increase
- 22:23in adjusted general and administrative costs.
- 22:27Our Q12026 adjusted operating expenses, excluding adjusted
- 22:31cost of revenues were $79.8 million compared to $66.8
- 22:38million in Q4 of 2025, which is within the 70 to $80 million
- 22:44guidance for adjusted operating expenses previously provided.
- 22:49The primary drivers of the increase versus the prior
- 22:51quarter were growth in our workforce, including contractors
- 22:55and consultants, our expanded production facilities and other
- 22:59professional fees, including legal fees related to our
- 23:02spectrum usage rights, transactions and regulatory
- 23:05initiatives. Turning towards the second chart
- 23:09on this slide, our capital expenditures for the first
- 23:12quarter of 2026 were approximately $257 million
- 23:17versus approximately $407 million for the fourth quarter
- 23:20of 2025. This figure was made-up
- 23:23primarily of capitalized direct materials and labor for our
- 23:27Block 2 Bluebird satellites with the balance relating to facility
- 23:31and production equipment expenditures.
- 23:34This amount was below the quarterly guidance of 350 to
- 23:37$425,000,000 that I provided during our last earnings call.
- 23:42Due to a change in the timing of launch contract payments, which
- 23:46will now be reflected in our Q2 guidance for the second quarter
- 23:51of 2026, we estimate there are adjusted operating expenses,
- 23:55excluding adjusted cost of revenues will increase to the
- 23:58range of approximately 85 to $95 million as we further absorb the
- 24:04full quarter cost of our recently expanded workforce and
- 24:07continue growing talent across our organization to scale our
- 24:12efforts to design, manufacture, launch and operate our growing
- 24:16satellites constellation as well as pursue the monetization of
- 24:21our L&S band spectrum usage rights.
- 24:25We expect our capital expenditures to increase in Q2
- 24:29of 2026 to a range of 575 to $650 million, primarily driven
- 24:35by the timing of launch payments related to our near term
- 24:38launches, which as I previously explained vary from quarter to
- 24:42quarter. To put this quarterly increase
- 24:44in capital expenditures into context, had the launch payments
- 24:48been made in Q1 like we originally planned instead of
- 24:51making them in Q2, our guidance for Q2 capital expenditures
- 24:55would have remained in the same general range as Q1.
- 24:58Importantly, our continued spend on growth related CapEx reflects
- 25:02our increasing satellite production in active orbital
- 25:06launch plans. We continue to estimate that the
- 25:10average capital costs including direct materials and launch
- 25:13costs for our constellation of over 90 Block 2 Bluebird
- 25:17satellites will fall in the range of 21 million to $23
- 25:21million per satellite, excluding certain initial satellites that
- 25:26are used to validate performance and operations.
- 25:29Our cost per satellite estimates are subject to fluctuations
- 25:33based on dynamic geopolitical factors that could impact our
- 25:36costs. As a reminder, the timing of the
- 25:39changes in our adjusted operating expenses and capital
- 25:42expenditures as I have just described could be delayed or
- 25:46may not be realized due to a variety of factors.
- 25:49In the first quarter, we recognized revenue of $14.7
- 25:53million, primarily driven by commercial gateway deliveries
- 25:57and various U.S. government service milestone achievements.
- 26:01Our revenue declined during the first quarter as we expected due
- 26:04to the timing of gateway deployment to our commercial
- 26:07customers and the timing of completion of certain government
- 26:10contract milestones. With respect to revenue
- 26:13generation, we believe we can enable continuous space mobile
- 26:17service across key markets such as the United States, Europe,
- 26:21Japan and other strategic markets with the launch and
- 26:24operation of approximately 45 to 60 Bluebird satellites.
- 26:29An additional strategic worldwide markets with the
- 26:32launch and operation of approximately 90 Bluebird
- 26:35satellites. Further, as we continue to
- 26:38launch and deploy our constellation, we will continue
- 26:41to support U.S. government applications currently ongoing
- 26:45and accelerating as our constellation grows.
- 26:49As we discussed in our Q 4/20/25 earnings call, we expect to
- 26:53generate full year 2026 revenue in the range of 150 million to
- 26:58$200 million. We manage the top line with the
- 27:01focus on full year performance given the quarterly variability
- 27:05inherent in our business, including the the timing of
- 27:08contract signings, equipment sales and milestone
- 27:11achievements. As a result, we believe our
- 27:14revenue performance is best evaluated on a full year basis.
- 27:19As we continue advancing our launch and network activation
- 27:22initiatives, we expect revenue to grow meaningfully each
- 27:25subsequent quarter. This year, we expect revenue to
- 27:29continue to be driven by gateway deliveries, achievement of
- 27:32contracted milestones for the US government, MNO consulting
- 27:36services with potential upside related to the recognition of
- 27:40initial commercial service revenue.
- 27:43Quarterly revenue will likely vary significantly depending on
- 27:46achievement of milestones and the timing of customer
- 27:49activities. I'd like to remind you that we
- 27:52believe that approximately half of a revenue opportunity within
- 27:55our commercial pipeline this year is already booked or
- 27:58contracted. The remaining portion consists
- 28:01of a combination of advanced stage opportunities that have
- 28:04not yet been signed as well as net new business we expect to
- 28:08secure over the course of this year.
- 28:11The achievement of our revenue plan remains subject to several
- 28:14contingencies including the successful launch and deployment
- 28:17of Block 2 Bluebird satellites related to U.S. government
- 28:20applications, contractual milestone achievements, critical
- 28:24gateway equipment sales to our M&O partners in support of their
- 28:27anticipated commercialization efforts of space mobile service
- 28:31and service revenues in connection with the activation
- 28:34of our commercial service provided by our existing and
- 28:37planned deployed and operational satellites.
- 28:40Finally, on the final chart in the slide, our Cash, Cash
- 28:44equivalents and restricted cash as of March 31, 2026 was
- 28:48approximately $3.5 billion inclusive of cash raised in
- 28:53February via the convertible notes offering with a 2.25% ten
- 28:59year coupon at an effective strike price of $116.30 per
- 29:05share. Our balance sheet continues to
- 29:08provide us with financial flexibility to make further
- 29:11investments to expedite the timing of and augment the
- 29:14capabilities of our Space Mobile service.
- 29:17Consistent with our last update, we do not have any plans to
- 29:21pursue additional convertible debt in 2026.
- 29:26In closing, we're off to a solid start to the year at AST Space
- 29:30Mobile. And critically, our 2026
- 29:33objectives fully remain in place with full recognition of a
- 29:37significant amount of hard work ahead of us.
- 29:39Revenue is building on plan and satellite manufacturing is
- 29:43increasing to support our orbital launch campaign.
- 29:46We look forward to sharing successful launch milestones
- 29:49with you in Q2 and throughout the second-half of 2026.
- 29:54Thank you for your continued support as we continue the hard
- 29:56work of connecting the unconnected at ASD Space Mobile.
- 30:00And with that, this completes the presentation component of
- 30:03our business update call, and I'll pass it back to Scott.
- 30:08Thank you, Andy. Before we go to the queue of
- 30:10analyst questions, we'd like to address a few of the questions
- 30:13submitted by our investors. Operator, could you please start
- 30:16us off with the first question? Scott from Indiana Ask.
- 30:22Historically, guidance for Block 2 Bluebirds has targeted peak
- 30:25download speeds of 120 megabits per second, presumably requiring
- 30:29your propriety ASIC chips. In the last quarterly update, it
- 30:33was stated that FM ONE, which does not have this ASIC chip, is
- 30:37expected to greatly exceed 120 megabits peak download speeds.
- 30:41Can you clarify current expectations on how FM ONE
- 30:44versus ASIC enabled Bluebirds are expected to perform?
- 30:50Thank you coach for the question.
- 30:52Well, this morning we did announce that from the middle of
- 30:57nowhere in the middle of the ocean on international waters,
- 31:02we did achieve big data rates very close to 100 megabits per
- 31:07second as we into standard device without any modification
- 31:15to the device, neither require any firmware or software upgrade
- 31:22to the device. This device as is today with the
- 31:29BB6 which is already in orbit and BB89 and 10 with respect to
- 31:41nearly double that capacity. We we think that this in
- 31:49addition to AI features that we will implement into the
- 31:54satellites large block of spectrum that we'll be adding to
- 31:59the network, particularly the L band and the S band MSS
- 32:04spectrums that we plan to add into the constellation And AI
- 32:10spectrum management features that help us to multiply the
- 32:13pursuit performance of the network make this complete
- 32:21change of what is possible far, far ahead of any other
- 32:27technology that is attempting to enter the market.
- 32:33Andreas from New York asks. You have repeatedly emphasized
- 32:36that you are in a race against yourself in the field of D2C
- 32:40broadband technology. Given the increasing attempts by
- 32:44other companies to enter the market, is this still true and
- 32:48what lead do you currently see over your competitors?
- 32:51What role do your patents play play in keeping the competition
- 32:55at Bay? Thank you, Andrea.
- 32:57That's a great question. Well, we always from the very,
- 33:01very beginning have a focus on delivering cellular broadband
- 33:10and for which you need a very large array, you need spectrum
- 33:16and and you need the ability to integrate that to partners MN OS
- 33:24on that end we have a very unique position.
- 33:29We had access through our MNO partners to around 3 billion
- 33:32subscribers. We are delivering broadband
- 33:35capacity provided obviously there is enough spectrum
- 33:40attached to the satellites today within orbit satellites as I
- 33:46said earlier, we are on the hundreds of megabits already.
- 33:50We plan to nearly double that and we we continue to activate
- 33:558-9 and ten and we launch them in the next few, few few weeks.
- 34:00And and then when you put in perspective that when you
- 34:09combine a very, very large satellite array with significant
- 34:16block of a spectrum, there are a combination between IMTMNO
- 34:23partner provider spectrum with our own MSS, we have we have
- 34:30access to more spectrum than anybody else also.
- 34:33So we we believe that as of today we are the only technology
- 34:38that have a space based cellular broadband capability given the
- 34:46size and on our architecture and the 3900 patent and patent
- 34:51pending claims that we have around our technology.
- 34:56Ben from Virginia asks, can you update us on your composite
- 35:00readiness? Specifically, are you now
- 35:03manufacturing all structural carbon fiber reinforced polymer
- 35:07components and reflectors entirely in house?
- 35:10And if not, is the plan to? Thank you Ben for the question.
- 35:18Listen, the, the, the, the way that we stack the satellites is
- 35:24think about tuna cans where you put three of them on one on top
- 35:32of another on the Falcon 9, up to 8 of them on the Blue Origin
- 35:37and New Glenn rocket or up to five of them in the Balkan Ula
- 35:44rocket. So that structure we is our
- 35:47design. It was a very, very difficult
- 35:52design to achieve because everything that you.
- 35:55Have in term of mass get multiplied.
- 35:58By the by the G of the rocket. So you have extraordinary amount
- 36:03of forces that get applied to the bottom satellites in the RT
- 36:08stack. But the answer is yes, we are
- 36:11now producing them at rate we own all the IP of how this is
- 36:18done. We are extending, we did grew,
- 36:21we have over 1000 people dedicated to build these
- 36:27compositive structures all, all across our satellites and we are
- 36:32now also extending and automating and robotizing how we
- 36:36do these structures in Midland. All of these to to achieve and
- 36:43keep our six satellites per month fully assembled every
- 36:47month where the composite structure it is a very, very
- 36:52important aspect of what we needed to do.
- 36:55So we're fully vertically integrated.
- 36:58We own the IP, we we control the manufacturing of everything on
- 37:04our satellites. Around 95% of the bill of
- 37:06material from. The composite structures, the
- 37:09new composite structures, the how you see that?
- 37:11The in the pictures of the manufacturing they, they, they
- 37:15turn from aluminum structures to composite that where they look
- 37:20black and and then but we also own and control everything down
- 37:27to our ASIC in the, in the supply chain of how we build and
- 37:33produce our satellites. Not From Indiana also asks any
- 37:39perspective you can share on progress made related to Golden
- 37:42Dome, Halo Europa or other government contracts.
- 37:47I'll take that one. So as I said in my remarks, you
- 37:51know, the backdrop for U.S. government contracts is
- 37:55continues to be really strong. We most recently saw a budget
- 37:59request for the Space Force of over $70 billion, which was by
- 38:03far the largest and there was a heavy emphasis on space
- 38:05activities. So it's it's a good environment
- 38:09for our capability to be maturing and we've been doing a
- 38:13lot of both communications and non communications with with the
- 38:17agencies who are the big buyers right now with space
- 38:19capabilities. So this is the right backdrop.
- 38:23We have the right capability. Remember we're currently
- 38:26deploying the largest ever phased raise in low Earth orbit
- 38:30and that gives us really an unprecedented capability to go
- 38:34to regular small low profile handsets as well as do radar
- 38:41capabilities. And when you look at the
- 38:43backdrop of awards and budgets over the last three to six
- 38:47months, there's been a real strong uptick as expected in the
- 38:52in the Space Force budget and in allocations related to Golden
- 38:56Dome. And specifically, you know,
- 38:59we're in a stage now where RFPs are being issued, awards are
- 39:03being made for for key elements of Golden Dome that that'll
- 39:06relate to us things that you see that are space based radar and
- 39:10others. So this is a is a really big
- 39:12moment for us. You're going to see some revenue
- 39:14coming in through U.S. government that's going to be a
- 39:17big contributor to our 2026 revenue.
- 39:19And for 2027, those awards that we'll receive or expect to
- 39:23receive over the next six months are going to be very significant
- 39:26for that effort. And with that, I'd like to thank
- 39:30our shareholders for submitting those questions.
- 39:32Operator, let's open up the call to analyst questions now.
- 39:38Thank you. We will now be conducting a
- 39:40question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question,
- 39:43please press *1 on your telephone keypad.
- 39:46A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the
- 39:48question queue. You may press *2 to remove
- 39:51yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker
- 39:53equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before
- 39:56pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll
- 39:59for questions. Our first question comes from
- 40:06the line of Chris Scholl with UBS.
- 40:09Please proceed with your question.
- 40:12Great. Thank you for taking the
- 40:14questions. Now that you've had a few weeks
- 40:16to digest, can you just walk us through what happened with
- 40:18Bluebird 7 and what gives you comfort this will not repeat
- 40:21going forward and that New Glen can scale accordingly.
- 40:24And last quarter, you mentioned you began to integrate your
- 40:27satellites with another heavy launch vehicle.
- 40:29And I believe I heard you say ula earlier, where does the
- 40:32integration process standing? Could we see you rely upon them
- 40:34this year? Is this more consideration for
- 40:3627 and beyond? Thank you.
- 40:40Hey Chris, I'll dive in. So, you know, we were pretty
- 40:44open on Bluebird 7, you know, the day of, you know, we, we
- 40:48knew what happened immediately and, and we were very open on,
- 40:51on what it is. And at the end of the day,
- 40:53remember we have 30 through 33 satellites in advanced stage of
- 40:57production at the factory. So while it was a loss, we're on
- 41:01to the next. So so yeah, I would say that
- 41:04we're working closely with Blue. It's they've, they're, they're
- 41:08working through the investigation.
- 41:11An upper stage anomaly like this is not uncommon early in
- 41:14programs. And you know, we feel optimistic
- 41:17about them getting back to the pad soon.
- 41:20And when you look at their cadence for the year, you know,
- 41:24we all know that they landed the booster, which was a was a great
- 41:26milestone for their cadence. And now they have two boosters,
- 41:30you know, sitting in their integration facility ready to
- 41:33get into the cycle. So we think the outlook there
- 41:36looks good and, and like I said, we're optimistic.
- 41:40And on the the second part of the question, you know, we
- 41:44mentioned that we have contracts with SpaceX and Blue Origin and
- 41:48others. We're also doing some
- 41:51integration activities in there with others to get ready for
- 41:55potential launches. And so listen, we, we, we've
- 41:59we've designed the rocket as you know in our business strategy to
- 42:02be launch vehicle agnostic and we're buyers of launch and
- 42:06across the entire heavy launcher footprint.
- 42:08So, so we're, we're, we were prepared for this years ago with
- 42:11our strategy. We think we selected the right
- 42:13partners and we've got good partners on top of that that
- 42:17we're working with. OK, great.
- 42:22Thank you. Thank you.
- 42:28Our next question comes from the line of Scott Serial with
- 42:31Warehouse Capital Partners. Please proceed with your
- 42:33question. Hey, good afternoon.
- 42:35Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just a quick follow up is,
- 42:39is there a timeline associated with the the FAA investigation
- 42:42of when you would expect that to be concluded?
- 42:44And then looking to the expected commercial launch of services at
- 42:47the end of this year, how many MN OS are you expecting to be
- 42:52live at launch and what are you guys thinking about in terms of
- 42:55the the ground station number that we should be expecting by
- 42:58the end of calendar 26? So hey, Scott, to the first part
- 43:07of the question on Blue, no, there hasn't been a publicly
- 43:10disclosed timeline, but like I said, these are these sorts of
- 43:13investigations are, are are pretty commonplace and there's
- 43:17been some, you know, good track record recently.
- 43:20So with other launchers who've had similar issues.
- 43:23So listen, we think we're really focused on our next launch
- 43:27obviously with Falcon 9 and the next three Bluebirds.
- 43:30But like I said, we're we're optimistic with Blue Origin and
- 43:35and I think you know we'll be we'll be in a good position
- 43:37there. But as you know, we have a multi
- 43:39launcher strategy that's been the strategy from the gecko.
- 43:43And in terms of what was the second question again, Scott?
- 43:46Oh, Scott, just in terms of the number of MN OS you would expect
- 43:50to be live with, you know, provided you got 45 satellites
- 43:53up in the sky in the fourth quarter, you know how many, how
- 43:57many carriers, how many covered Subs should we be thinking about
- 44:01in, in terms of that are adjustable from day one of
- 44:03launch? Well, it's a global network, as
- 44:10you know. So we put a lot more disclosure
- 44:13in our remarks today about the regions we're focused on and the
- 44:17countries we're focused on. So All in all, where we are
- 44:21currently doing ground integration efforts, some which
- 44:24are quite advanced like in the United States and and other
- 44:27countries in Europe, some others that are getting started.
- 44:29It's a, it's a pipeline. There's a lot of countries to
- 44:31focus on. But just on the countries listed
- 44:33in our deck, you see a population coverage of about 2.9
- 44:37billion. So, so in terms of how we
- 44:39prioritized amongst that, you've heard from us before key markets
- 44:43like the US, Canada, UK, Japan, Saudi.
- 44:48So we're we're looking at that list and it's growing every day.
- 44:51But we want to give a little bit more incremental detail today
- 44:54with that in our deck and and in our remarks on the other
- 44:57countries we're focused on. Great.
- 45:00Thanks so much. Thank you.
- 45:06Our next question comes from the line of Michael Funk with Bank
- 45:09of America. Please proceed with your
- 45:10question. Yeah, great.
- 45:13Yeah, Thank you for the thank you for the question.
- 45:15So I want to go back to the launch target.
- 45:18I think you talked last quarter about stacking up to 8
- 45:21satellites per launch. And so just just wondering about
- 45:25the hurdles authorizations required to to get to the 8.
- 45:30And then Abel earlier in the in the call you, you mentioned you
- 45:36know deploying AI edge computing features, I think the next
- 45:39generation of satellite and want to get a better understanding of
- 45:42how that's going to improve either the efficiency or
- 45:45performance of next generation satellite.
- 45:50Yeah, let me let me answer first the first question.
- 45:55As I explained earlier in the call, we do have now the
- 46:00technology and we are manufacturing that at rate which
- 46:05is basically the technology to be able to to stack multiple
- 46:09launches, multiple satellites in a single launch.
- 46:13The the, the way that we do it is basically on, on New Glen we
- 46:21can stack up to 8. In Vulcan, we can stack up to
- 46:26five and in Falcon 9 we can stack up to three.
- 46:30And, and this is self-contained, it's structurally full
- 46:34composite. It is manufactured under an IP.
- 46:39We are also growing, We have over 1000 people dedicated to
- 46:43build these structures where they're very, very difficult to,
- 46:46to, to build and test. But we are now very close to
- 46:52getting six of them every month and being able to stack it with
- 46:56each of the different launch, launch, launch partners.
- 47:02To your second question about AI, we, we are not in the in the
- 47:10plane of of a hyperscaler systems in space.
- 47:16But what we are incorporating to our satellites which you will
- 47:20start seeing in the production batches towards the end of the
- 47:24year is the ability to edge compute and load AI capabilities
- 47:30on board that can be very efficiently integrated also to
- 47:36the UE's for for a for a variety of uses around around AII
- 47:46received relate to AI spectrum management.
- 47:50Basically you fly, you have a resources to do to administrate
- 48:00dynamically the basically power and spectrum.
- 48:05As you know, we can, we can tune within 1100 megahertz of a
- 48:10spectrum and then we have blocks of a spectrum with our M&O
- 48:16partners that's called IMT spectrum that we can tune
- 48:24country by country, location by location.
- 48:27And also we had our MSS and the AI spectrum management is a
- 48:32system behind all of that, that basically predict traffic,
- 48:37predict location, predict where people are and then allocate
- 48:40that very, very intelligently. Remember on a satellite you have
- 48:442800 square kilometers of view of what's going on underneath
- 48:47you. And AI basically have the
- 48:51ability to predict where the traffic will be as the
- 48:55satellites move and dynamically allocate resources into into the
- 49:01satellite. That's typically the power or a
- 49:05spectrum. And the the end result of that
- 49:08is that the perceived use of perception of what amount of
- 49:12spectrum it is used of how efficient it is.
- 49:16It is. It is a multiple because you
- 49:18basically can play with the whole field of view in how you
- 49:22allocate dynamically the spectrum square kilometer by
- 49:26square kilometer. Great.
- 49:29Thanks. Thank you so much for that.
- 49:35Thank you. Our next question comes from the
- 49:37line of Mike Crawford with B Riley Securities.
- 49:39Please proceed with your question.
- 49:42Thank you. Just to clarify with the AST
- 49:475000 ASIC that that's been expected to enable 120 megabit
- 49:51per second peak data speeds, but is it the AI spectrum management
- 49:55that that that gets you up closer to to 200 megabits per
- 50:00second by year end? And then and then also on the
- 50:05non communications capabilities that you're developing in
- 50:09conjunction with the with the SDA, would I be, would we be
- 50:13correct in assuming we're talking about mid band military
- 50:18radar? So that's something that we're
- 50:19not going to see with the initial Bluebirds that are that
- 50:23are launching now. But once you incorporate L band
- 50:27and excuse me, S band into the satellites.
- 50:32Yeah. Let me talk with the with the
- 50:35with the defense capability. I will not be able to describe
- 50:39it on on this forum, but basically it's a non
- 50:42communication capability that use the same the same, the same
- 50:46hardware that that that we use on, on, on on our commercial
- 50:50satellites and that's been in use today.
- 50:54And as Scott mentioned, they're using it today.
- 50:59They plan to extend drastically how they use it and that is a
- 51:04non communication application for defense purposes the the the
- 51:12and before we. Leave that topic, Mike.
- 51:18It's important to note that that does not require mid band
- 51:20spectrum. That's something we can do with
- 51:23low band spectrum which we're deploying, which we've deployed
- 51:25today, right? Correct.
- 51:28Then as you relate to the ASIC, the Asic's complete is is being
- 51:33incorporated into into the production line.
- 51:37The ASIC basically allowed us to upgrade the amount of bandwidth
- 51:46we can manage with the for each satellite.
- 51:50So on the FPGA satellites, we had a run of 1 gigahertz of a
- 51:57spectrum. With the ASIC SATA, we have 10
- 52:00gigahertz of a spectrum. So it's a factor of 10 increase
- 52:04on number of gigahertz that can be constantly used per
- 52:09satellite. The big data rates are actually
- 52:12not dependent on the FPGA or ASIC.
- 52:16That's. How many of those connection you
- 52:18can have simultaneously? And do not rely on the AI in
- 52:25order to get to to the 100 megabits per second that we have
- 52:29on an SPGA satellites that are actually the smaller initial
- 52:34satellites and respect to double the 98 megabits per second that
- 52:39we have. We are using the BB6 which is in
- 52:43the ready orbit on the a nine and 10 that we will launch here
- 52:48very quickly that do not require the the the ASIC or the AI
- 52:52management and that's pure big data rate per sale.
- 52:57The AI management is basically when you is is an is, is is a
- 53:02way to intelligently distribute that big pipe of 10 gigahertz or
- 53:07one gigahertz depending on the version of the satellite
- 53:10intelligently where the users are and predicting where the
- 53:13users are going to be in order to allocate a slide of that ten
- 53:20gigahertz where the traffic is needed.
- 53:24And do it, do it, do it dynamically and proactively
- 53:30using AI agent of our own. OK.
- 53:36Thank you very much. Thank you.
- 53:44Our next question comes from the line of Brian Craft with
- 53:46Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your
- 53:48question. Hi, good afternoon.
- 53:52Apologies for the the multi part kind of long question, but I
- 53:56really had a few questions I wanted to ask you around launch.
- 54:00I guess first, do you have contracted launch capacity to do
- 54:06an average of basically one launch per month from June
- 54:10through December, because I think that's what you need to do
- 54:12in order to get close to that 45 number.
- 54:16And then how diversified is the launch mix and, and what if you
- 54:23can only do say one more new Glen launch this year, could you
- 54:26still get close to that 45? You know, I don't know if this
- 54:31is the first time I think you've mentioned Vulcan.
- 54:34So I was wondering, you know, how much launch you were able to
- 54:36secure there and if that could fill that gap in.
- 54:42And then it sounds like you've made great progress on the
- 54:45manufacturing side with 11 through 33 in production.
- 54:51Is the next batch of satellites going to be ready to ship for
- 54:54say a July launch? And then the last thing I wanted
- 54:59to ask you about is on the stacking, do you sort of need to
- 55:03work your way up to the Max of those ranges?
- 55:09In other words, you know on the next New Glen, can you go right
- 55:12to 8 or do you have to or or? Or would you prefer?
- 55:15To say, do 3 or 4 to make sure it goes smoothly and then, you
- 55:19know, 5 to 6 and then go to 7:00 to 8:00.
- 55:22Or are you just going to kind of fill these things up going
- 55:25forward? So thank you.
- 55:28Hey, Brian. So, yes, we do have contracted
- 55:32launch capacity to meet our target for the for 2026.
- 55:36And, and the way to think about it is basically, you know, a
- 55:39handful of Blue Origin launches and a handful of SpaceX or
- 55:44equivalent launches. And, and that's what gets us to
- 55:47the approximately 45, You know, we, we know that Blue Origin
- 55:52just suffered an anomaly, right? But we're we're we're optimistic
- 55:56about the return of the pad and the fact that they land, they
- 55:59have two boosters is, is, is a massive support for the the, the
- 56:04cadence that we have always expected and then we have
- 56:07contracted. So, so that's how we think about
- 56:09the mix and how we get to that 45 number on the manufacturing
- 56:15side. We definitely, yeah, we, we have
- 56:18capacity to to keep knocking out launches one after another.
- 56:22Absolutely. You can see that on the the page
- 56:25in the deck. So give it given where we are,
- 56:28we expect to have more satellites each month to be
- 56:31ready for for launch and and we'll of course as we have
- 56:35update the public, you know 30 to 6090 days ahead of launch as
- 56:39those are down selected and confirmed.
- 56:42And then on stacking, I think you you pretty much captured it
- 56:45Brian. I mean we expect on the next New
- 56:48Glenn will will launch for satellites.
- 56:51Part of that is kind of ramping into the stacking capability and
- 56:54also of course managing where they are in the program.
- 56:57But you know, we're, we're very mature now in the three stack
- 57:01and and we're going to be doing that very shortly and the four
- 57:04stack likely shortly thereafter. And then yeah, 678, you know,
- 57:09that's how we get to our, our constellation size, right.
- 57:12That's why we've selected the the vehicles we have and plan to
- 57:15make use of of as much of the capacity of each of the Rockets
- 57:19as we have available. That that's very helpful.
- 57:23Scott, if I could just ask one follow up, where, where does ula
- 57:28fit into that? You mentioned handful of Blue
- 57:30Origin, handful of SpaceX. Is, is Vulcan sort of the backup
- 57:35or are you going to use them as well?
- 57:37Just just curious, you know why that came into the conversation
- 57:40today? Our strategy has always been to
- 57:46have many launch providers, right?
- 57:48And so I put that in that that category.
- 57:52We've been developing other heavy launch providers for some
- 57:54time and and we'll have more updates as appropriate.
- 57:58But right now, you know, we plan to use Blue Origin and SpaceX
- 58:02and and equivalents to the Max. OK.
- 58:05Thank you. Thank you.
- 58:10Our next question comes from the line of Louis De Palma with
- 58:12William Blair. Please proceed with your
- 58:14question. Good.
- 58:16Afternoon Abel Scott and Andy Abel.
- 58:25What? Great.
- 58:27Abel and Scott and Andy, what do you view as the the impact of
- 58:33Amazon's acquisition of a global star?
- 58:37And do you view any potential partnership opportunities with
- 58:42Amazon as they seem to be very much in the early stages of
- 58:48entering this industry? Listen, we, that's a complicated
- 58:57transaction in the sense that that capacity and that
- 59:02capability, it is already on the phones through the iPhones.
- 59:07And basically we, we, we see the capability as ASOS emergency
- 59:18system our and, and we also see that here really at the end of
- 59:26the day to provide broadband, you need to have hundreds of
- 59:29megahertz of a spectrum allocated.
- 59:32So we're obviously here talking about in the case of global star
- 59:36on a very small fraction of that.
- 59:41So we don't see that changing dramatically in the foreseeable
- 59:45future of what the capability is today.
- 59:47And we don't, we don't see any, any real change of the landscape
- 59:53at least at for for the next several years when you think
- 1:00:00about some of our partners and you combine their spectrum.
- 1:00:06IMT 3 GPP already on the phone spectrum that they are allocated
- 1:00:10to us plus our 50 megahertz of spectrum and MSS either on the L
- 1:00:16band and the S band you're talking about in some cases with
- 1:00:19some partners all the way up to 100 megahertz of allocated the
- 1:00:23spectrum. So, so our focus is broadband.
- 1:00:27Our focus is of course the broadband will come as we enable
- 1:00:32the spectrum in a combination of our partner spectrum in low band
- 1:00:39and then later our mid band low band spectrum in, in the L band.
- 1:00:46We, we, we see that that's a complete different proposition
- 1:00:50and, and, and different. And we quite frankly, no, nobody
- 1:00:53is nowhere close in to the capabilities that we have
- 1:00:57technically to deliver hundreds of megabits directly to a phone
- 1:01:02from something that is flying at 70,000 mph, 500 kilometers above
- 1:01:06you. And, and that, that, that, that
- 1:01:10competitive advantage of that capability unique.
- 1:01:12And that's, that's that what we make available to, to to our M&O
- 1:01:17partners. Great.
- 1:01:21And another question I'm following up on the, the trial
- 1:01:25that was announced this morning that generated the.
- 1:01:28Peak downlink of of 99 megabits. Per second, do you have a sense
- 1:01:33of what the average downlink you know would look like for, you
- 1:01:39know, block 2 satellites when you and your your partner's
- 1:01:43launched the the trials later this year?
- 1:01:46Yeah, I think the, the, the talk about peak and average is, is
- 1:01:53tricky because also depends on what is transiting through the
- 1:01:56through the applications on the phone.
- 1:01:58So that when we tend to focus about peak, but the big data
- 1:02:02rate for for our larger BB 6, which is in orbit and a nine and
- 1:02:0910, it is approximately double of what we disclosed this
- 1:02:14morning. So you're talking about closer
- 1:02:17to the 200 megabits per second. And and that's that's that's
- 1:02:22peak and and and average it depend what you're transiting is
- 1:02:27small packages, packages or. Large packages and.
- 1:02:31How you interact, right, demo network capacity is pretty much
- 1:02:37double of what we disclosed this morning around double what we
- 1:02:41disclosed this morning. Great.
- 1:02:45Thanks everyone. Thank you.
- 1:02:52Our next question comes from the line of Chris Quilty with Quilty
- 1:02:54Space. Please proceed with your
- 1:02:56question. Thanks guys.
- 1:02:59I just want to do a quick follow up on the, excuse me, the non
- 1:03:04communication satellite effort on the defense side.
- 1:03:08You know, since your satellites were specifically designed as a
- 1:03:11communication platform, does that imply that you're going to
- 1:03:14have to do, you know, large redesign of satellites and
- 1:03:18adding things like optical cross links and on board processing
- 1:03:21and pointing mechanisms? Or and if so, is that something
- 1:03:27that would be customer you know and are refunded or something
- 1:03:30that you know you're putting the capital for?
- 1:03:34Hey, Chris, I mean we, we are, we, we didn't start working with
- 1:03:38it with, with, with our department award this year, not
- 1:03:43even last year. This is have been many, many,
- 1:03:46many, many years in the coming. So all the capabilities that
- 1:03:50they require are already built in, in what we are producing on
- 1:03:53the on the line. There will be additions as per
- 1:03:58the request and are not permitted to to discuss.
- 1:04:03But basically the core capability of what they're
- 1:04:06using, it was incorporated many years back.
- 1:04:12Great. And Speaking of government
- 1:04:15defense budgets, assuming the administration, you know, gets
- 1:04:18through this reconciliation package, there's a huge
- 1:04:22generational budget increase. Can you name the specific
- 1:04:26programs where you think AST you know has an opportunity to
- 1:04:30target? Or are you expecting that most
- 1:04:32of your opportunities are going to be on the classified side?
- 1:04:38It is a combination and a lot have to a lot related as the as
- 1:04:46the government have made it public by themselves around the
- 1:04:50Golden Dome. But we are basically in all
- 1:04:58aspects of government usage were presence from Firstnet from the
- 1:05:05classified to all the way to the to to the golden Dome.
- 1:05:09So for communications and known for communication and non
- 1:05:13communication capabilities. We, we, we we see ourselves as a
- 1:05:18very important asset to our government multi utility.
- 1:05:23And and as I said, this is have been years developing for them.
- 1:05:30They're using it today and respect, respect a very
- 1:05:37significant growth in revenue and opportunity in all aspects
- 1:05:42of government usage of our technology.
- 1:05:47All right. Thank you.
- 1:05:52Thank you. Our next question comes from the
- 1:05:55line of Greg Pendy with Clearstreet.
- 1:05:57Please proceed with your question.
- 1:05:59Hey guys, just a real. Quick one when you do hit 45
- 1:06:02satellites. On the launch.
- 1:06:05Side what is the commissioning time period we should be
- 1:06:08thinking about until sort of deactivation with service with
- 1:06:12MN OS? Yeah, currently, you know are we
- 1:06:17are we are we do it on the first satellites.
- 1:06:20I mean the satellite, these satellites are the largest
- 1:06:23satellites face arrays ever, ever deployed.
- 1:06:26So it took longer that it will take on the common satellite.
- 1:06:33So they target the 45 days. That's that's what we are
- 1:06:37planning with the MN OS every time that we launch in 45 days,
- 1:06:40which will be using either 5G or 4G connectivity through them.
- 1:06:46And but we keep launching we we plan to reduce that time frame
- 1:06:51for 45 all the way down to two weeks.
- 1:06:54We don't want, we don't want to promise that in the in the early
- 1:06:57batches of satellites. Great.
- 1:06:59And then just one more. As you're looking at this multi
- 1:07:02launch strategy plan and adding, you know, new launch partners,
- 1:07:07any thoughts if Neutron from Racket Labs is available in 2027
- 1:07:11on what type of capacity and if that would be a potential other
- 1:07:16partner in the launch strategy? Hey, yeah, we're, we're not
- 1:07:22going to comment on, you know, other launch providers, but
- 1:07:25you've heard our commentary today about who we're, who we're
- 1:07:27looking at, but we're, we, we, we like launch providers.
- 1:07:30We, we, we like to launch with them.
- 1:07:32Our satellites are designed to fit and all the standard 5M
- 1:07:35fairings and, and larger ones as well.
- 1:07:37So, so we, I think that's what we'll we'll say at this time.
- 1:07:42OK, great. I appreciate it.
- 1:07:45Thanks. Thank you.
- 1:07:49And we have reached the end of the question and answer session.
- 1:07:52I would now like to turn the floor back over to Scott
- 1:07:54Wisniewski for closing remarks. Thank you, operator.
- 1:07:59We want to thank all of our shareholders and research
- 1:08:01analysts for joining the call. Really appreciate it.
- 1:08:03Have a great week. Thank you.
- 1:08:08And this concludes today's conference and you may
- 1:08:10disconnect your lines at this time.
- 1:08:11We thank you for your participation.
- 1:08:21Thanks for listening to the AST Space Mobile podcast.
- 1:08:24If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the.
- 1:08:27Podcast. Please share it with others,
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- 1:08:33To catch all the latest. News about.
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- 1:08:38Thanks again and I'll see you next time.
- 1:08:44Or doing something very, very big.
- 1:08:45And I think with this technology, we can really affect
- 1:08:48billion lives. ASP Space globally is the only
- 1:08:51company that has. Full.
- 1:08:53Technology to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly
- 1:08:57from space to do everyday smartphone.
- 1:09:00People will just basically turn their phone and be seamless,
- 1:09:03regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to
- 1:09:06know that it's connected by satellite.
- 1:09:09Our role is to bring this into reality, always in partnership
- 1:09:13with the MMO.