In a world first, Vodafone has made the first-ever video call over satellite. Vodafone Group has just completed the world’s first-ever space-based video call using 4G/5G smartphones and satellites built to offer a full mobile broadband experience.
Vodafone engineers had a video call with Margherita Della Valle, the CEO of Vodafone Group, while the engineers were in a part of rural Wales that’s a total not-spot, a place where there are no masts to provide mobile signal. Their Android smartphones were instead connected by satellite, a feat that has never been done before. Astronaut Tim Peake and Margherita marked the milestone at Vodafone’s UK headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire.
The AST SpaceMobile satellite used by Vodafone for Margherita’s video call is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. It sits at an approximate height of 500km above the surface of the planet. This shorter distance makes it much more practical to provide mobile data connections with acceptable speeds. The AST SpaceMobile satellite that Vodafone used can provide faster mobile data speeds than other LEO-using services as it uses a technique called beamforming. Already used in WiFi, as well as wholly terrestrial 4G and 5G networks, this technique precisely directs radio signals from satellites to their intended destination. This not only helps increase speed, but also minimises interference, increasing reliability.