Satellite communications on smartphones is becoming the norm - 91 operators in the world are already ready to offer it
The convergence of land mobile operators and satellite providers is becoming the industry norm: to date, 91 cellular operators around the world have signed agreements with satellite providers.
According to GSMA Intelligence, an authoritative source of data on mobile operators around the world, active mobile and satellite contracts currently cover approximately 60% of the global mobile subscriber market.
In the US market alone, the three largest mobile operators have already signed agreements with satellite service providers. In particular, Verizon and AT&T have teamed up with SpaceMobile's AST, and T-Mobile US has teamed up with SpaceX's Starlink. Currently, Starlink has 17 active agreements, AST SpaceMobile has 24, and Lynk Global has 15.
As reported, the deployment of services will occur gradually. So, at the initial stage it will be voice communications and SMS, and then, as satellite capacity increases, modernization will begin, which will ensure data transmission.
It should be noted that the largest number of contracts were concluded in Asia.
The undisputed leader is Starlink, which has about 6 thousand satellites in orbit. Eutelsat OneWeb takes second place, with a constellation of 650 devices. AST SpaceMobile currently has only one satellite in orbit, while Project Kuiper, which is owned by Amazon, currently has two test satellites in orbit.
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