AT&T – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

AST SpaceMobile makes deal with ATT to use its cell-to-satellite constellation

May 16, 2024 11:59 am Robert Zimmerman

AST SpaceMobile, which launched in 2022 its first satellite for direct cellphone-to-satellite communications and has been successfully testing it since, has now signed a deal with ATT, which wants to use the company’s planned constellation of five such satellites, scheduled for launch this summer.

Nor is this the only satellite company launching such satellites. SpaceX has already launched several dozen Starlink satellites adapted for direct cell-to-satellite service. In addition, it appears that all the companies making smart phones are adding features to their phones that would allow this capability in the future.

Once operational, these satellites will act as orbiting cell towers, and will thus eliminate most of the dead zones in all the populated regions on Earth.

The boom in commercial space continues

September 9, 2021 10:50 am Robert Zimmerman

Starship on an early test flight
Modern rocketry soaring under freedom

Capitalism in space: In the last two days there have been so many stories about different space companies winning new contracts I think it is important to illustrate this in one essay, rather than in multiple posts. Below is the list:

SpaceX wins contract to launch Yahsat’s Thuraya 4-NGS satellite

Just another contract that illustrates SpaceX’s growing market dominance in the larger satellite and payload business. The company already gets about 90% of the launches for lunar probes. It now appears that for the big comercial satellites, SpaceX’s lower prices are allowing its market share to approach that same number.

Rocket Lab wins multi-launch deal for IoT constellation

This contract is for the launch of 25 satellites, and thus solidifies Rocket Lab’s market share as many other smallsat rocket companies arrive to compete with it.

Sierra Space and Kanematsu Corporation Creating Japanese Partnerships to Advance International Commercialization of Low-Earth Orbit

This press release suggests that Kanematsu will be the another customer for the private space station that Sierra Space is planning to build and launch.

OneWeb and AT&T partner to extend fiberlike coverage across United States

This deal illustrates the growing strength of the satellite industry that feeds the growing launch industry. The OneWeb/ATT partnership is aimed at making the OneWeb satellite constellation available to more customers more quickly.

Isar Aerospace to launch OroraTech wildfire monitoring cubesat constellation

This German startup has not yet launched anything, but it has raised a lot of capital as it develops its Spectrum rocket for a planned first launch in ’22. This contract is for “multiple launches.”

South Korea to spend $593 million on public-to-private transfer of rocket technologies

The last two stories are possibly the most significant, because both show that the shift in space from government-built to privately-built, as I advocated in my 2017 policy paper, Capitalism in Space, is spreading to other countries. » Read more

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AT&T: How to Use the Dial Phone

July 6, 2018 6:01 pm Robert Zimmerman

An evening pause: I would not be surprised if some of the younger readers of Behind the Black would need the instructions in this silent film in order to properly use a rotary phone.

Introducing any new technology requires instruction. This was strange stuff to homeowners in 1927, but a great improvement over party line phones that required an operator to do the dialing. And this was cutting edge then, and a symbol of the future.

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

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