Other Countries Will Follow FCC's SCS Regime: AST's Avellan

The FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) framework adopted at the March open meeting (see 2403140050) gives AST SpaceMobile a path to more than 200 Mhz of spectrum for direct-to-device services, CEO Abel Avellan said Monday evening as the company announced Q4 results. He said the framework also should facilitate AST's pending applications with the FCC. AST expects that many regulatory agencies globally will follow the U.S. SCS regime, he said, offering Brazil's proposed SCS framework as an example. He said its five Block I Bluebird satellites should launch in July or August, with the first of its Block II satellites launching between December 2024 and March 2025. The investment of AT&T, Google and Vodafone announced in January (see 2401180068) gives AST funding to launch the Block I satellites and the initial Block IIs, Avellan said. He added the Google agreement also includes collaboration on product development. "It’s super strategic for us" and will "create value on the Android ecosystem for our customers and end users," he said. Startup AST reported no revenue for the quarter.