The Federal Communications Commission has given the go-ahead for AST SpaceMobile to test direct-to-cell mobile broadband services, including voice and data, with AT&T and Verizon.
This is a pretty big hurdle for AST SpaceMobile to have cleared as it moves towards providing commercial mobile broadband services from space, as evidenced by its stock price uptick when it announced the regulator's decision late last week.
It's arguably too much of a stretch to suggest it's one in the eye for arch-rival Starlink, its myriad LEO direct-to-cell satellites and the commercial launch of a messaging service with T-Mobile US that is probably not too far away. But technology differences between the two mean that AST can start testing full services with its partners, the aforementioned US operators and T-Mobile's domestic rivals, while Starlink is in battle with the FCC over an out-of-band emission limit that at present prevents it from moving forward with voice and data services.
