Advanced Television

AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile raises $1bn of fresh debt

AST SpaceMobile is adding to its borrowings, raising $1 billion (€0.86bn) of convertible debt, but using some of its cash to pay off $50 million of existing borrowings. The $1 billion sum is made up of $850 million in new debt, but is giving the lenders the option to increase by $150 million in their […]

October 22, 2025By Chris Forrester

AST’s BlueBird FM1 arrives in Chennai

Following on from a four-day air-journey on a giant Antonov aircraft ended in being unloaded on October 16th at Chennai airport. The aircraft carried the first of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird second-generation satellites (FM1). The satellite was then transferred by a simple truck to the Indian ISRO launch site where it will undergo final tests in […]

October 20, 2025By Chris Forrester

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird/FM1 en route to India

AST SpaceMobile’s first of its second-generation BlueBird satellites is now on its way to the India rocket launch site at India Space Organisation’s Sriharikota/Satis Dhawan facility. The spaceport is located on an island off the east coast of India, surrounded by Pulicat Lake and the Bay of Bengal. The distance of Sriharikota from Chennai is […]

October 14, 2025

AST SpaceMobile recovers after Verizon agreement

The news that Scotiabank telecoms analyst Andres Coello had downgraded shares in AST SpaceMobile to ‘Sell’ surprised the market. On October 8th came the news that US cellular giant Verizon was firmly confirming it would start offering AST’s cellular service from space. AST’s shares surged 17 per cent as a result. “Through our definitive commercial […]

October 9, 2025

Bank has mixed messages for AST SpaceMobile

First, the good news: AST SpaceMobile has opened an $800 million ‘At The Market’ offering of new shares to a cluster of banks. The money is now available as needed by AST and if fully drawn down is equal to about 3 per cent of the shares issued. It means that AST is sitting on […]

October 8, 2025

AST SpaceMobile connection will work indoors

Scott Wisniewski, AST SpaceMobile’s (AST) president used a Bloomberg Businessweek TV interview on October 2nd to explain in some details how tests of its satellite to ground transmissions were going. Wisniewski said that AST’s signals would cope with “one wall” of a premises or inside a car. He told Bloomberg that a user simply would […]

October 6, 2025By Chris Forrester

Bell Canada will offer AST connectivity in 2026

Bell Canada has announced it is launching a direct-to-cell satellite service in 2026 – offering customers video, voice, text and broadband data – through a partnership with Texas-based AST SpaceMobile. It’s the latest effort by the Canadian company to provide connectivity to the country’s most rural and challenging geographies, as global space companies race to […]

October 3, 2025By Chris Forrester

650 Starlink D2C craft in orbit

Two massive AST SpaceMobile (AST) satellites will take place shortly. The first called BlueBird 6 (also known as FM1) will be on its way to India for a launch. The second, BlueBird 7 (aka FM2) will be launched by SpaceX and will be delivered to Cape Canaveral during October. But these two AST satellites are […]

October 3, 2025

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 6 ready to ship

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 6 satellite, also known as FM1, has “completed final assembly and testing and is ready for flight” according to a company statement. The satellite has been a long time reaching this point and was originally expected to launch much earlier this summer. It will now ship to India on a giant Antonov […]

October 1, 2025By Chris Forrester

AST SpaceMobile wraps EllioSat purchase

AST SpaceMobile has announced its 100 per cent acquisition of EllioSat, in a deal first announced in August. AST said its reason for the purchase was because EllioSat “holds certain S-Band ITU priority rights to MSS (Mobile Satellite Services) frequencies in the range of 1980-2010 MHz and 2170-2200 MHz, for use in low Earth orbit”. […]

September 30, 2025By Chris Forrester