Will SpaceX Kill AST SpaceMobile's DTC Satellite Dreams in 2025?

Nearly four years ago, space company start-up AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) made a bold proposal to investors in its SPAC IPO: For the low, low price of just $10 a share, you could invest in a company that would revolutionize communications by enabling any off-the-shelf smartphone to call any other off-the-shelf smartphone -- anywhere on the planet -- "direct-to-cell" (DTC) via satellite.Development of this technology, said AST, would be "game-changing ... for global mobile connectivity." The company that made it a reality (AST) said it could sign up as many as 5 billion mobile subscribers for its services, and dominate a $1 trillion global mobile wireless services market, without ever needing to lay a mile of fiber optic cable on the ground, or build a single cellphone tower. Instead, all AST would need to do is build a few satellites, launch them into orbit, and invoke a magical technology to do something no one had ever done before.The catch: AST wouldn't tell anyone exactly how it planned to do this, because "the technology is highly proprietary, and exactly how it works cannot be disclosed."Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool