AT&T and Verizon customers could start seeing satellite coverage on their phones before the year is out. AST SpaceMobile says it’s still on track to switch on intermittent nationwide service in the US by the end of 2026, and it’s designed to work with the regular Android phones and iPhones people already carry.
The company shared the update during its Q3 earnings call this week, as Fierce Network reports. CEO Abel Avellan said AST is on track to activate service in the US and other key markets before year’s end. Along with the US, that list includes Canada, Japan, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.
In the US, AST works with AT&T and Verizon, including AT&T’s FirstNet network for first responders. The plan is to activate roughly 5,600 coverage cells across the contiguous US, and AST said in October it had already turned on more than 3,000.
Intermittent means it won’t always be there
The key word here is intermittent. AST doesn’t have enough satellites in orbit yet to cover the whole country all the time. Early service will only work when one of its BlueBird satellites is passing overhead, and coverage will get more frequent as more launch.
AST says it needs around 45 to 60 BlueBird satellites for continuous service in the US, Europe, and Japan. It’s planning to launch more than 100 of them across 2027 and 2028 with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and others. It’s also building its own reusable rocket, called Blacklift, which won’t start launching until late 2028.
After the initial activation, the next step is a beta in real-world conditions, then full commercial service when it’s ready. That timeline has already slipped once. Last year, AST was targeting intermittent service in early 2026.
To keep up, AST says its Midland, Texas, factory will build six satellites a month starting in December. The company reported $42.3 million in Q3 revenue, up from $14.7 million a year ago, and kept its full-year forecast at $150 million to $200 million.
AST isn’t alone here. T-Mobile already offers T-Satellite through SpaceX’s Starlink, and SpaceX is building out its own carrier, Starlink Mobile. AST’s pitch is broadband speeds from space, not just texts and basic data, but it’ll need a lot more satellites in orbit to prove it.
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