Many shareholders of AST SpaceMobile stock are beside themselves with anticipation of a spectacular rise in their holdings. Of course, there is the small challenge of launching the key five satellites that make up the very first portion of what will be a mega-constellation of approaching 90 satellites. The mission is to send and receive 5G telephony to ‘ordinary’ smartphones.

The current status is that the Bluebird ‘block 1’ satellites will be delivered to SpaceX’s pre-launch facility at Cape Canaveral during the next 7-10 days, and then launch – hopefully – early in September.

The share price, however, has gone crazy. Helped by strategic investments from AT&T, Verizon and Google, and signed contracts or Memorandums of Understanding with another 40 or so telcos around the world, and a full-service introduction next year, the all-important revenues will start flowing.

As to the share price, as recently as May this year it was stuck at around $2-$2.30 per share. By May 16th it had nearly doubled to $4. By May 29th, it had more than doubled again to $9. On July 29th, it was touching $20 and confirming a price target set last week by a bank’s report, which might have seemed bullish, now are more than accurate.

The bank (Scotiabank) predicted $21.10, but added on July 25th: “Our $21.10 share estimate remains a conservative target subject to significant upside.” Their comments are highly favourable, adding that thanks to AST’s global reach and contracts already in place AST “will hit a 50 per cent share of the direct-to-consumer market”.

The other challenge AST has is to ‘beat’ Starlink to market. SpaceX has more than 100 of its own Starlink ‘direct-to-consumer’ (D2C) satellites operational and Elon Musk saying that it is almost ready to initiate a service. Morgan Stanley, in its recent report on Starlink’s D2C business suggests that it will account for $34.9 billion or 33 per cent of Starlink revenue by 2040. It asks: “If the #2 player, ie Starlink, (and where AST is Number 1) is projected to do $35 billion of revenue, what does that imply for #1 player AST with its established partners of AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone and +42 other MNOs? Starlink has 7 MNO partners today.”

It is these predictions that are helping AST’s shareholders go somewhat crazy. $2 to $20 in barely 3 months suggests some optimism is justified.

Other posts by :

1. Russian satellite tumbling out of control
2. FCC boss praises AST SpaceMobile
3. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
4. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
5. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
6. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
7. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
8. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
9. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place

Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: AST SpaceMobile, mobile, satellite