5 March, 2025
AST SpaceMobile’s newly announced plan to create a jointly owned European satellite operator for direct-to-smartphone services comes at a pivotal moment in the region’s push for greater space autonomy.
The Texas-based low Earth orbit (LEO) operator’s partnership with European telecom giant Vodafone, which was already set to provide the cellular spectrum needed to launch its services in 10 countries, ultimately aims to extend coverage across the entire continent.
Scott Wisniewski, AST SpaceMobile’s chief strategy officer, said the agreement lays the groundwork for a network of gateways essential to integrating satellites with more terrestrial mobile networks, paving the way to expand partnerships to three times as many countries.
“We think that having a European-based, European sovereign operator is really important,” Wisniewski said.
“It’s important for Europe. It’s important for European operators, and it’s frankly an extension of how we built our network … We built it so that operators and regulators can feel comfortable about how the traffic is managed, and we think that this is a great extension of that.”
To support the expansion, the company said it recently opened 5,600 square meters of manufacturing and office space in Barcelona, Spain.
The move underscores a broader trend in Europe toward securing independent space-based capabilities, particularly in the face of rising geopolitical tensions and regulatory scrutiny over foreign satellite operators.
