Texas-based ASTSpaceMobile, which is building the world's first space-based cellular broadband network, has received funding. New investors Google and AT&T, as well as Vodafone, which previously invested in the project, jointly announced a new strategic partnership to provide a total of up to $206.5 million in new financing. This includes convertible notes, non-dilutive commercial payments and future draw rights under the company's existing credit program.

In addition, ASTSpaceMobile also announced a public offering of Class A common stock. This could generate up to $115 million in additional cash for the company.

Google is likely to be a major contributor to the project, as it agreed to collaborate on product development, testing, and implementation plans to enable AST's network connectivity on Android and related devices.

Its purpose is to provide cellular connectivity directly to regular smartphones. ASTSpaceMobile claims that its technology has the potential to enable data transmission speeds of up to 120Mbps.

Although the company currently has only one satellite in low-Earth orbit, it has achieved a number of world firsts in 2023. These include the first 2G voice call from space to a smartphone, the first 4G LTE connection, the first 5G voice call and 14Mbps data download.

ASTSpaceMobile said in a press release that Vodafone and AT&T have issued network equipment purchase orders to ASTSpaceMobile to support planned commercial services. Additionally - before announcing the investment - AT&T had already leased its spectrum (the 700 and 850MHz bands) to AST. ASTSpaceMobile claims that it has reached agreements and understandings with more than 40 mobile network operators around the world, with more than 2 billion users.

AT&T isn't the only U.S. telecommunications company collaborating on similar projects. Previously, T-Mobile partnered with SpaceX to implement so-called direct cellular technology in its existing Starlink mega-constellation.

As we recently reported, SpaceX successfully conducted the first test of this technology, allowing phone calls to be made via a satellite equipped with new hardware developed specifically for this purpose.