Vodacom Parent Makes World's First Satellite Video Call Using A Standard Smartphone

The European mobile operators CEO Margherita Della Valle received the call on Monday from company engineer Rowan Chesmer, who was located in the Welsh mountains where there was no network signal.

We were using the only satellite service that can offer a full mobile experience with a normal device, so you get everything from voice to text to video data transmission, which is why we did a full video call, Della Valle said in an interview on Wednesday. Our objective is to bring the service to our customers as soon as possible.

Vodafone, which controls South Africas Vodacom Group, is using AST SpaceMobiles five BlueBird satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide transmission speeds of up to 120Mbit/s for standard smartphones. The British company is an investor in AST SpaceMobile, alongside AT T, Verizon, Google and others.

Mobile operators and smartphone makers are racing to deploy satellite services to close gaps in network coverage.

Apples devices since iPhone 14 have been able to use satellites to text emergency services, message friends and family and share location using low-bandwidth connections. Rivals including Google and Samsung offer similar services.