Latest / AST SpaceMobile Podcast / Scott Wisniewski at The Novaspace World Space Business Week

Transcript

Scott Wisniewski at The Novaspace World Space Business Week · AST SpaceMobile Podcast

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  This is the AST Space Mobile podcast and.
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  We just basically come your phone and be seamless regardless
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  of where you are. We don't want the user even to
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  know that it's connected by satellite.
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  Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
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  Large. Well, thank you for having us.
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  We, we at AST Space Mobile have had a cellular broadband first
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  strategy and approach to direct device.
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  It's a purpose built direct device network.
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  It's created with the M&O operator in mind.
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  The architecture works for the operator.
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  They've been in the room with us building this over time.
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  So for us, we always come from the lineage of broadband
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  approach premium add on about filling in the gaps and the
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  cracks and that's been the approach we followed throughout
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  our our life and and really since since inception.
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  So with the operators, AT&T and Verizon are investors in the US,
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  Vodafone in Europe, Bell Canada and rackets in Japan.
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  And then we also have investment from American Tower and Google.
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  Our approach has always been ecosystem centric.
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  How do we best make the service work in the end state for the
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  operators which will work for the end user.
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  And so that's that's what our approach on the business side,
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  building that business through being a revenue source as
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  opposed to a cost center is absolutely critical in any
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  telecom service. And that's how we've built the
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  business and that's how we've organized our go to market
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  strategy. We've signed commercial
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  agreements, definitive commercial agreements with AT&T
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  and Vodafone. Our other major partners are not
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  far behind. And All in all, we have over 50
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  signed up globally who come first.
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  I think that's where things should be.
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  That's where the ARPU generation is, That's where the trillion
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  dollar market is. But overall, we are very
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  friendly to the ecosystem and want to build this out to
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  maximize the size of the market 'cause we think users want
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  connectivity and they and we see it every day, we feel it every
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  day and we have a very flexible technology solution to deliver
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  that to them on a cellular broadband basis.
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  Three to four months when you expect to launch and then I'll
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  I'll do the general panel question.
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  Yeah. We're at a really exciting
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  moment for us in that we're putting real big architecture
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  into place in space. Constellations are very hard,
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  often attempted, rarely successful.
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  We have a few on the panel with us today, but, but it's hard to
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  overstate how hard building a constellation is.
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  And we've been successful in putting up five, the largest 5
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  satellites ever commercially deployed in low Earth orbit.
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  And our next generation satellite that's more than three
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  times the size is ready to roll off the factory floor very soon.
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  And so that is going to be going on one of three different launch
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  partners. And we plan 13 total launches
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  over the next year and a half. And to further public disclosure
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  on that point, we've done 5, we plan 5 launches at least through
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  the Q1 of next year. So we are, we are getting very
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  ready. We're very excited.
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  We've taken a launch agnostic strategy to make sure we get to
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  orbit as fast as we can, as often as we can with our very
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  large satellites. And it's a very exciting moment
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  for us. And we think that putting that
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  now into orbit is, is very smart because we've, we're, we're
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  we're all seeing what was just mentioned on the spectrum front.
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  We of course made our spectrum investment earlier this year and
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  believe that MSS together with cellular is a fantastic way to
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  go. And we think that the recent
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  spectrum investment conveys a couple things.
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  One is the value of the spectrum asset that we have today.
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  And two, the value of the market and expectation over time, we
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  think that that sort of spectrum investment, terrestrial style
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  spectrum investment conveys what ultimately is a very big market
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  and gets to my earlier point, this notion that this is a small
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  market, this is, this is, this is there that already coverage
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  exists everywhere. That's perfect.
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  It's just not correct. There's going to be a tremendous
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  role for satellites in the next three years, five years, 10
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  years, 20 years in making these evolving and imperfect cellular
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  networks that we all depend on for our lives, our convenience
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  and frankly fun. And just how we, how we've
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  evolved as human beings is absolutely critical in this.
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  And, and every investment that's been made by this panel and
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  others conveys, I think how big that's going to be and
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  everyone's trying to get organized around that.
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  Thank you. Scott, what makes your approach,
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  whether technically or commercially truly
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  differentiated? I'll leave it open-ended.
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  I'll jump in. So our satellites are very
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  large. We think that that's always been
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  the right answer. We think that's where the market
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  will go. Having a large aperture in
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  orbit, if you can pull it off, gives you better propagation
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  characteristics to the phone, gives you the capability to
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  handle more frequencies which can balance both the cellular
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  and MSS strategy, which is what we do.
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  It allows you to service a lot of MN OS, It allows you to
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  service multiple frequencies within the same beam and it
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  allows you ultimately to have a very large pipe to deliver as
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  much service as possible. And you know what, that's always
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  been at the base for us because we feel like this is a real
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  strategic big thing. And, and you know, part of what
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  we've had to explain over the years is try to tell that story.
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  And it's, and frankly, it, it doesn't really make much sense.
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  All of us got cell phones about year 2000 or so.
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  And in the 80s, one of my favorite anecdotes is people
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  trying to figure out what the use case for cell phones are.
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  And you know, big debate for that because you have a phone in
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  your house. What do you need a phone on the
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  go for? And they thought maybe real
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  estate agents would use it when they're going between showings.
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  So that was a use case they identified for cellular phones.
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  And and of course, we don't know what the future holds.
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  What we know is that we are for connectivity.
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  I mean, frankly, we're we're addicted.
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  Every generation, every year, more and more people need this.
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  They want this as a service more than many other household items.
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  So when you talk about interest in the service, ability to pay,
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  the key is that we don't have a new device.
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  The device exists, sort of facilitates all different sorts
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  of ARPUS for all different sites of services.
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  You can sell a bit, you can sell a GB, you can do a lot of
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  different things. So for us, it's always been
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  about how do you facilitate that full stack, that full offering
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  with a flexible technology now, a flexible spectrum strategy and
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  that allows us to figure out what will come.
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  And we do that with an ecosystem approach.
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  We are we, we believe, a very friendly partner for the
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  operators. We always have been.
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  And even just in Europe, you know, Vodafone's invested in US
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  in 2019, in 2023, in 2024, I think it was three times.
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  And they recently formed a joint venture with us.
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  So we're going to market in Europe with them.
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  And we've signed up 21 of the 27 member states already.
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  So for us, it's about the tech layering in the spectrum that's
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  important that we all know and understand and bring to bear the
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  operators and making it work for them.
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  Because ultimately satellites and space has not been relevant
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  to cellular in a big way in the past.
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  And that cellular market, that consumer mass market touching
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  the 8 billion lives, the 6 billion phones is ultimately
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  what we're all trying to do. And we believe that our
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  technology can do that in a very unique way.
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  And we're launching satellites a handful of launches later this
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  year and many more in 2066. Space mobile, their whole ball
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  of wax is this thing. And so your risk is relatively
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  low. So I'd like to ask, God, isn't
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  that an awfully risky position considering you're going to be
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  competing against all of these other people who are in fact are
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  using existing assets. So if it doesn't go as well as
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  you think it does as as well as the Saudis indicate they don't
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  risk very much at all. But you've got your whole ball
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  of wax hung out on these these projections.
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  Is that, wasn't that a consideration?
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  You guys are really out on the risk curve, are you not?
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  That's a great point. And The funny thing about
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  financial risk is that it goes both ways.
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  So we're very excited about the risk profile of this sector.
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  We've always been a huge believer in it.
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  Everything we've thought has come to come to bear.
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  The big satellite strategy is right, The cellular partner
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  strategy is right, The cellular plus MSS for frequencies
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  strategy is right and we've done a fantastic job building it up
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  as fast as possible. The vertically integrated
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  strategy is right. You can't build a constellation
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  by by purchase orders. So we love the risk.
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  We think this is going to be a big market.
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  We think that having access to one of the major bands in the
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  largest portion of it and the most valuable wireless market in
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  the world is an incredible beach head.
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  And having the ecosystem that we have with over 50 mobile network
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  operators is an incredible position to be in with 6,000,000
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  phones, 6 billion phones out in the market.
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  So we love the risk. We think it's a great market.
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  We're building it out with cellular broadband, which is the
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  right strategy. And so I think the the trick
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  with risk is making sure you take the right steps.
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  And we've executed incredibly well both as a private and a
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  public company. And that's the approach that
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  that we take. And, and we like that risk and
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  our partners like that risk. And we think this is going to be
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  a very important market. It's a great place to be.
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  Thanks for listening to the AST Space Mobile podcast.
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  If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the
• 9:31
  podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social
• 9:35
  media, or leave a rating and review.
• 9:37
  To catch all the latest news about AST Space Mobile, make
• 9:41
  sure to subscribe. Thanks again and I'll see you
• 9:44
  next time. We're doing something very, very
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  big. Connecting with this technology.
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  We can really affect billion lives.
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  AFT Space globally is the only company that has proven
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  technology to deliver cellular mobile connectivity directly
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  from space to do. Everyday smart people will just
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  basically turn their phone and be seamless, regardless of where
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  you are. We don't want the user even to
• 10:10
  know that it's connected by satellite.
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  Our role is to bring this into reality, always in partnership
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  with the MMO. Listen, Waffles.