Traditionally, phone calls between standard cellphones are made using cell towers, which can considerably limit their reach — think national parks or other very rural areas. However, what if our smartphones could use satellites to place calls when there isn’t a cell tower close by?
AT&T has taken a big step toward this reality. Its network is one of the hosts to the first known voice call placed on a standard smartphone and transmitted with satellites. The call was placed on AT&T’s network from Midland, Texas, on a Samsung Galaxy S22. It was transmitted via AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite to a receiving phone on mobile carrier Rakuten’s network in Japan.
“Achieving what many once considered impossible, we have reached the most significant milestone to date in our quest to deliver global cellular broadband from space,” said AST SpaceMobile chairman and CEO Abel Avellan. “While we take a moment to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment, we remain focused on the path ahead and pivotal next steps that get us closer to our goal of transforming the way the world connects.”
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