The research hub is scheduled to open by summer 2025, said Vodafone
Vodafone has announced plans for a research hub dedicated to the enablement of seamless switching between low earth orbit space-based and land mobile broadband services. The project is supported by an initial grant from the Spanish Space Agency, and the telco has tapped AST SpaceMobile and the University of Málaga (UMA) as lead partners, with other third-party technology companies and developers invited to join.
“As society becomes more digital, the need to close coverage gaps increases. Vodafone, together with AST SpaceMobile and the University of Málaga, will forge partnerships with like-minded organizations to build harmonious space and earth networks to meet Europe’s ambitious targets for ubiquitous digital connectivity,” commented Alberto Ripepi, Vodafone Group’s chief network officer.
The emphasis for the hub will be on the design, testing and validation of new, open source hardware, software and processing chips that can work interchangeably in both space and terrestrial networks, Vodafone noted, adding that it will be home to space-to-land gateway, like the one the telco used for its January space direct to device video call, an achievement it called a world-first. Vodafone’s partners, as well as other operators, will be able to use this gateway to test and validate their own services connected to AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites before introducing them to the market.
“By enabling other operators and vendors to test services through the hub, Vodafone is encouraging collaboration across the industry that will drive innovation and deliver universal connectivity faster and more efficiently,” the telco said, adding that it will ultimately expand the hub to become a “fully managed network and service operations center for third-party companies across Europe.”
Chris Ivory, AST SpaceMobile’s chief commercial officer, added that the partnership with Vodafone advanced the “shared vision of providing space-based cellular broadband connectivity directly to everyday smartphones everywhere.”
The focus on land-space integration is timely. At the satellite industry’s flagship show last year, for instance, the emerging convergence between terrestrial cellular and satellite systems was one of the hottest topics, with one moderator calling it the “Great Convergence.”
The research hub will be located at Vodafone’s European innovation center in Málaga, Spain and is expected to open by this summer.
