LIVE FROM MWL UNWRAPPED: THE 5G EVOLUTION: Luke Ibbetson, head of group R&D at Vodafone Group (pictured), admitted it was AST SpaceMobile’s “outrageously audacious vision” that convinced it to form joint venture SatCo, and it wasn’t a case of simply picking a winner from the many satellite companies operating on the market.

Ibbetson told Mobile World Live Vodafone’s aims for direct-to-device (D2D) in particular was to deliver a service that complemented its terrestrial network and give it the ability to “provide proper, full broadband to customers” wherever they are.

“We didn’t want something from the beginning that would just provide emergency messaging when somebody is stuck up a hillside. We wanted something that would be able to augment our terrestrial network assets in a very seamless way, fill in the blanks and give our customers the security of having that full fat feeling of broadband in their hands, wherever they are.”

The Vodafone executive admitted that after many years of looking at different satellite technologies, it would only be able to fulfil its mission if a company had a massive beamforming in space.

Until recently, that wasn’t something it could see happening. However, when it started to look at AST SpaceMobile’s design, architecture and a vision to put giant antenna arrays in space, it saw an opportunity.

“It wasn’t because we were picking a winner from all the number of different satellite companies that are out there now that weren’t out there. We simply saw a great opportunity to use some very, very, clever emerging technology.”

Tricky timescales
Ibbetson’s comments come a week after the pair’s joint venture outlined plans to form a Europe-led satellite constellation which will include a command switch to support sovereignty.

Ibbetson admitted he was somewhat surprised by how much interest there is in the concept of sovereignty, while acknowledging its growing importance.

“If you’re a European stakeholder, you want to have assurances to know who’s got their hands on the controls.”

With plans for SatCo to roll out services in 2026, Ibbetson said this was still the aim but admitted “timescales are tricky” given the complexity of satellite launches in general.