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Asts not PRing Friday's ANATEL spectrum decision in Brazil, whereas SpaceX did, shows they don't consider it a big deal, even though both received the exact same allocation : 15+15 MHz of S-band, 5+5 of which expire in June 2029. SpaceX, which had asked for the entire band (30+30 MHz) and ended up with half of it, clearly does. The reason is always the same : asts can rely on its MNO partners spectrum, whereas SpaceX can't. Spectrum is a headache for SpaceX but it's a commodity for asts. The same logic applies to launches, but inverted. That is why asts will PR everything related to satellite production and launches, the value of every successful BlueBird launch being orders of magnitude higher than that of a Starlink batch launch. One would say: if Asts has the spectrum and SpaceX has the launches, then since this week SpaceX has an advantage because they now have both. Sure, that's how the market saw it, or at least the part of the market that traded this news on Friday, because we all know the ones selling are not long-term investors fleeing the boat but hedge fund pod traders enjoying a highly liquid and volatile stock. Thing is, it's not that simple. First, you can increase launch cadence, but physics can't create more spectrum. Then, beyond spectrum rights, you still need authorization to build cell towers in a foreign country if you dare to offer a competitive service, meaning full coverage, including cell towers in dense urban areas where most consumers want their 5G/6G connectivity. This means Starlink and BlueBird satellites are definitively not equal : - one can process low-band and the other can't ; - one carries a 223 sq m array and flies at around 520 km, the other is much smaller, is designed for around 5 years and flies at around 360 km (330 km for the next generation), an altitude where drag is so strong that a satellite that stops thrusting reenters the atmosphere and disintegrates within months ; - one has a phased array large and powerful enough to be pitched for government applications, the other doesn't. But what matters most is this : a LEO satellite travels at roughly 27,000 km/h and circles the Earth about 15 times a day, meaning it only spends a few minutes above any given point and sweeps over dozens of countries every day. Where BlueBirds can activate service simply by signing an agreement with partners already operating with enormous terrestrial infrastructure, local regulatory authorization from sovereign telcos, and established client bases, Starlink Mobile would need SpaceX to rebuild all of that from scratch. That will take YEARS if not DECADES, because having a large constellation is an engineering feat, but having the rights and infrastructure to monetize it everywhere on Earth depends on the goodwill of each sovereign country, and no government will easily hand a foreign company access to its citizens' communications. This week's clash between Musk and Indian authorities illustrates this perfectly. —— TL;DR : $ASTS sentiment has capitulated, but the thesis remains unchanged.