Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
The global response to Musk and Trump's pressure on Ukraine, accompanied by a temporary shutdown of Starshield, was swift.
Here's where things stand now:
🇨🇦 CANADA
The Canadian government has signed a CAD 2.3 billion contract with national satellite operator Telesat to expand its Lightspeed low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation.
Lightspeed was originally developed as a commercial competitor to Starlink and OneWeb. However, the government is now funding the integration of a dedicated, secure military communications system operating in the Ka-band and has already placed an order for additional satellites with Canadian aerospace company MDA Space.
🇫🇮 FINLAND
Finnish company ICEYE, a developer of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, and Nokia have announced a strategic partnership to develop sovereign LEO broadband communications systems for interested European governments.
The project aims to provide European countries with a ready-made platform allowing each government to fully own and control its own satellite communications infrastructure, including encryption, without dependence on foreign providers.
This concept is known as "Sovereign SatCom."
🇪🇺 EUROPEAN UNION
The European Commission has moved toward awarding manufacturing contracts and increasing funding for its sovereign satellite communications network, IRIS².
Airbus Defence and Space has already signed contracts in Toulouse to manufacture the first 66 LEO satellites. Thales Alenia Space has been tasked with developing specialized secure payloads for government applications.
The program has been expanded to 348 satellites, with an additional €4 billion in funding.
🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA
South Korea has successfully conducted its first orbital launch of the year using its domestically developed Nuri (KSLV-II) rocket from the Naro Space Center.
The rocket simultaneously deployed 14 payloads, including additional satellites for the national NEONSAT constellation and several military CubeSats.
🇯🇵 JAPAN
Japan has allocated approximately $1 billion in subsidies to develop a nationally controlled direct-to-device satellite network.
The system is designed to allow ordinary smartphones to communicate directly with satellites during major earthquakes or military conflicts.
The project involves cooperation between Rakuten and AST SpaceMobile.
🇺🇦 UKRAINE
The UASAT project, an initiative by STETMAN and a consortium of partners, has successfully completed registration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Preparations are now underway for the UASAT-NANO test satellite, which will mark the first step toward creating Ukraine's own sovereign satellite constellation.
🇨🇿 CZECH REPUBLIC
At the same time, agreements with the Czech Republic are being finalized for the joint development of a constellation of optical reconnaissance satellites called Suziria ("Constellation").
Ukraine is also expected to gain access to backup capacity within Europe's GOVSATCOM system.
🇩🇪 GERMANY
German company Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit carrying satellites on September 5.
THE BIG PICTURE
The brilliant strategists Elon and Donnie wanted to show us who controls the red button for satellite internet.
Well, they succeeded.
And in a strange way, perhaps we should thank them.
Because they have reminded the entire world of one simple truth:
Whoever controls your communications can control your future.
And now countries around the world are working to make sure that no single billionaire — or American president — can ever hold that power over them again.
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
🚨 ANALYST AT SAUDI TELECOM COMPANY (STC) BREAKS DOWN $ASTS’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE! 📡🇸🇦🛰️
A Technical Solutions Analyst at Saudi Telecom Company (stc) just published an in-depth breakdown of AST SpaceMobile’s Spectrum Strategy!
Key takeaways on why $ASTS holds a massive technical moat:
• Multi-Band Strategy: Combining terrestrial MNO cellular frequencies with Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) spectrum (L-band & S-band) to balance total coverage and network capacity.
• Overcoming Heavy Physics: Managing propagation losses, Doppler effects, and smartphone uplink limits using advanced beamforming and frequency reuse.
• Scalable Architecture: Having spectrum isn't enough—$ASTS translates its spectrum portfolio into sustainable, commercial-grade throughput.
When senior technical analysts at Tier-1 operators like stc publicly highlight AST SpaceMobile's superior architecture, it shows where the telecom industry is placing its focus.
Engineers analyze the tech, Wall Street catches up later. 🚀 $ASTS
$ASTS Orange on AST SpaceMobile
$ASTS | Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, during the Q3 2026 earnings call:
“Last week we signed, together with Deutsche Telekom Telefónica and Vodafone, a letter of intent to prepare a potential joint bid for the future allocation of spectrum for mobile satellite services in Europe. The initiative supports the European Commission's ambition to strengthen Europe's sovereignty, security, and resilience in critical connectivity infrastructure. Overall, we see satellite connectivity as a core complement to our networks to provide coverage completeness and resilience. Also in terms of innovative growth, Orange Business obtained a new Secnum Cloud qualification, extending its portfolio of trusted cloud offers. Orange Business was also selected to provide the European Union's backbone network for trusted data exchange. Our Maxit in Middle East Africa keeps gaining traction, with 38.5 million active users.”
“On the satellite and MSS spectrum, as we commented, we signed a letter of intent with Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Vodafone to potentially bid for one part of the MSS spectrum that is being auctioned end of 2027 for implementation in 2029. The bid for this spectrum would then be open and wholesale to all telecom operators in Europe. We see MSS spectrum really as a complement to our terrestrial network. As we've always said, for us, the key element will be the customer experience and the handover from terrestrial to satellite and back and forth between our networks, which really requires mastering both side of the experience, working also on the end sets. This is really the way we see it. When it comes to the bid and the consortium to bid for spectrum, it's still early stage, so we can't provide you more details. Again, the process is second half of 2027, so we will provide more detail as soon as we have.”
“On satellite, you are right to mention we launched this first offer a year ago, actually, with Skylo in France. As you know, we are testing several solutions. We are also testing Starlink in Spain. We have a pilot under preparation in Romania with AST. When it comes to the Skylo offer, we've been able to test the willingness for customers and the appetite in the market for this type of offer. That being said, the Skylo experience, given its geostationary solution and it was only available on a few devices, was as expected. It was for us a test in the market to test the appetite, to position ourselves on this segment. However, we plan to continue to add especially more device options, given it was limited to only customers buying this new Pixel devices which was a very small part of the market.”
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
$ASTS: 🚨BLUE ORIGIN ON TRACK TO RESUME NEW GLENN PAD OPS IN NOVEMBER
@outerspacetoday: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is targeting a return to New Glenn launch-pad operations in November, following a catastrophic rocket explosion that damaged its Cape Canaveral launch complex in May.
According to Aviation Week, Blue Origin has completed reconstruction of its 430-foot Vehicle Access Tower at Launch Complex 36, a major milestone toward resuming launches.
The May 28 explosion occurred during a preflight engine test, destroying the rocket and damaging critical ground infrastructure. Blue Origin subsequently traced the failure to an oxygen-valve issue in one of its BE-4 engines.
Rather than rebuilding the original launch configuration, the company is introducing a new system that integrates rocket stages horizontally before lifting the vehicle onto the launch pad.
Blue Origin is still targeting a return to flight before the end of 2026, although no launch date has been confirmed.
The recovery is critical to New Glenn's growing commercial and government launch commitments, including NASA's Artemis lunar program.
Original Paywalled article: aviationweek.com/space/launc…
$ASTS Samba no Brasil!
AST SpaceMobile Advances Brazil Expansion with Anatel’s Approval for S-band Spectrum and Secondary Use of the 700 MHz Band, Agreements with Four Regional Operators and Planned Ground Infrastructure
businesswire.com/news/home/2…
$ASTS 《Midland is the heart of our manufacturing. It's also, from a gateway perspective, the heart of our R&D, all of the development and innovation that we do. Behind me, you'll see one of many antennas.
When you think about a gateway, a gateway, of course, is an antenna field. It's multiple antennas. So think the U.S., across Europe, Canada, Japan.
Everywhere that we have partners, we are basically building gateways. This is truly, truly a global business. The antennas are connected to power.
They're connected to fiber, which is effectively the transport layer. And then from there, all of that connectivity goes into a head-end room. Each of these antennas will be connected to a specific satellite.
And as additional satellites are coming over the horizon, they will connect to a different antenna, and then they will hand off between each other. It's one of the benefits that AST SpaceMobile has with having very large satellites. There's fewer handoffs because it's a large satellite and it's high power, high capacity.
It creates a much better user experience. If a customer goes from the terrestrial network to the satellite network or the satellite network to the terrestrial network, it should be completely seamless to the user. We don't want our customers to be limited in any of the services that they currently have.
So whether it's voice, text, data. Starts with all of the areas that currently have no coverage. And then the next piece of it is all of the what I would call the edge use cases.
It's the one bar scenario that every single one of us experiences sometime where we're driving down the highway and we have a drop call. And it's not because the network is necessarily a poor network. It's just that you're getting too far away from the cell site.
In those situations, that's where the satellite network can be an extraordinary complement. We're doing something that's really incredible and I know it's going to change the world.》
The AST SpaceMobile network is taking shape, in orbit and on the ground.
Today, over 60 gateways are in various stages of completion, installation and planning worldwide.
Initial, intermittent coverage targeted before year-end 2026 in the U.S. and other key markets around the world.
A new layer of connectivity, designed to connect directly to the smartphones people already use.
🇺🇸 📶🌎📱
#ASTSpaceMobile #ConnectingtheUnconnected
$ASTS J-LEO
This quoted post is unavailable.
French OATs under heavy pressure on political/budget worries and protests (spread vs Bund ~170 bps, widest since 2011). Safe-haven bid into US & German bonds.
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
🚨🇪🇺 BREAKING: Critical software vulnerabilities trigger government website shutdowns across at least SIX European countries, affecting public authorities, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure.
Two severe security flaws have been discovered in PHP, one of the world's most widely used server-side programming languages.
The vulnerabilities could potentially allow attackers to execute malicious code on affected servers without authentication or access sensitive information, including passwords and security credentials.
Confirmed disruptions across Europe:
🇩🇰 DENMARK
• Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI)
• Copenhagen Municipality
• Danish Road Directorate
• Aula, the national school communication platform
🇩🇪 GERMANY
• Federal Police (Bundespolizei)
• Federal Interior Ministry
• Robert Koch Institute
• Customs authorities
• Charité university hospital
• University of Potsdam
🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS
• Port of Rotterdam websites
• National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
• Government portals and judicial services
• Political party websites
• Several hospitals
🇧🇪 BELGIUM
• Flemish government websites
• Smartschool education platform
• AZ Monica hospital in Antwerp
• Media organisations
🇫🇮 FINLAND
• Government ICT services
• National Land Survey
• Additional public-facing government websites
🇫🇷 FRANCE
• Local government administrative websites temporarily shut down as a precaution
🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM
The National Cyber Security Centre has issued an urgent warning, recommending protective measures, including temporary shutdowns where necessary. No specific government shutdown has been independently confirmed.
🇺🇸 UNITED STATES
According to Reuters, the White House has been aware of the vulnerabilities since October 16.
Federal authorities are now assessing whether government systems and critical infrastructure have been affected.
The vulnerabilities reportedly remained undiscovered for more than a decade before being identified with the assistance of AI.
Security patches have now been released, and organisations are being urged to update vulnerable installations immediately.
IMPORTANT: The reported shutdowns are primarily precautionary security measures, NOT evidence that the affected organisations have been successfully hacked.
There is currently no confirmed coordinated cyberattack or established state-sponsored attribution.
The scale of the response highlights how vulnerabilities in widely used software can simultaneously disrupt digital public services across multiple countries.
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
$ASTS - As promised, here is my latest report on AST SpaceMobile, specifically in two countries: Chile and Brazil. I will start off with Chile as it's a single update.
On October 15th, Chile's SUBTEL established into a decree ASTs authorization to use specific bands in Chile...
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
$ASTS I asked Germany’s regulator five procedural questions on D-BLUEBIRD.
Here’s the reply that came within 12 hours.
Context
D-BLUEBIRD (D2026-84958) moved from API to official coordination (CR/C) in BR IFIC 3082 on 13 Oct 2026. Notifying administration: Germany. Operating agencies listed in ITU metadata: SATCO & AST SpaceMobile GmbH.
The five questions I put to the Bundesnetzagentur (Satellite Services, Mainz):
1. How does this national ITU coordination sit relative to the EU 2 GHz MSS award process?
2. Does the 2483.5–2500 MHz band fall under purely national assignment competence, independent of the EU 2 GHz procedure?
3. Can D2D use of terrestrial bands already happen under RR No. 4.4 (or experimental authorisation) before coordination is finished and before WRC-27, or is a public consultation still required?
4. What constellation parameters (number of satellites, altitudes, inclinations) and feeder-link frequencies are in the public CR/C data?
5. What concrete technical or operational presence requirements does the BNetzA attach to acting as notifying administration for such an NGSO system?
What came back (20 Oct 2026):
The reply was general and procedural rather than a point-by-point answer. As expected.
Core statements:
• ITU filings address international coordination under the Radio Regulations. API and CR/C stages must be kept separate. They map future use options; they do not constitute national or EU spectrum assignment.
• "There is no direct and immediate connection to questions of national or EU-wide frequency allocation/use. One should not read anything into it."
• D2D is expected to proceed via agreement between satellite operator and mobile operator on a national basis.
• Operation under RR No. 4.4 requires an assessment of why the use will not interfere (example: MNO agreement + out-of-band / out-of-beam conditions).
• Q/V-band gateway frequencies (feeder links) are part of the filing.
• Constellation shorthand: 297 orbital planes, 344 satellites; 690 km (66°/53°), 520 km (53°), 685 km (98.13°); orbital periods ~1h35–1h40. Not every orbit option will necessarily be used.
• Operator is AST SpaceMobile GmbH. Registration and operation of the satellites from Germany is planned.
• Technical obligations (orbit injection, debris avoidance, manoeuvrability, de-orbiting, reporting etc.) are covered once frequency and orbit rights are transferred.
• Filing seniority in MSS bands and national coordination (passive services, adjacent bands, critical infrastructure) still matter. Without them you can face implementation limits: inability to illuminate everything desired, or forced reduction in usage density.
Read
• Fact: Germany is the notifying administration; the filed constellation comprises up to 344 satellites with Q/V feeder links included; operation from Germany is planned.
• Inference: The filing secures international seniority and a regulatory home inside the EU, independent of how the 2 GHz MSS award process plays out.
• Speculation: A German notifying administration plus European-operated gateways is consistent with the sovereignty framing around Satellite Connect Europe. No source confirms that direct link.
Note: Quotes and figures come from a written reply by the Bundesnetzagentur to my inquiry. The official is not named for privacy reasons.
Not financial advice.
@CatSE___ApeX___ @thekookreport @Defiantclient2 @spacanpanman
$ASTS Rakuten Strongest Satellite Service (translated flyer content).
I asked Grok to translate.
Domestic service launch targeted for Q4 2026
Introducing the satellite direct-to-device communication service.
Your smartphone connects even in places where signals were hard to reach
Even on remote islands
Even in emergencies
Coverage comparison
Average area coverage of Japanese carriers (including others): about 70%
Rakuten Mobile area coverage: to 100%
Unprecedented scale of the largest-ever phased-array antenna in low Earth orbit
(US AST SpaceMobile satellite; as of April 2025, AST SpaceMobile data)
Other companies: approx. 6.2 m² (*as of January 2024)
Ours: approx. 223 m² → about 36× larger
Service comparison
Other companiesRakuten Strongest Satellite Service
• Text messages
• Data / voice calls• High-speed internet (video streaming, social media, etc.)
• Text messages
• Data / voice calls
*Includes features planned for the future.
$ASTS AST SpaceMobile Advances Service Readiness Ahead of Initial Space-Based Cellular Broadband Coverage in Key Global Markets
Initial, intermittent coverage targeted before year-end 2026 in the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia
More than 60 gateways deployed, installed, or in planning worldwide, supporting a global ecosystem of over 60 mobile network operators representing over 3 billion subscribers
Spectrum strategy targets approximately 100 MHz of access in the United States, complemented by global spectrum capabilities
MIDLAND, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (“AST SpaceMobile”) (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications, today announced it is advancing service readiness in key global markets before the end of 2026, including the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
“We are moving toward service with the partnerships, spectrum and network capabilities needed to bring cellular broadband from space into people’s everyday lives,” said Scott Wisnieswki, President of AST SpaceMobile. “Our Bluebird satellites, with the largest communications satellites ever deployed in low Earth orbit, carry capabilities beyond space-based cellular broadband connectivity. We are building a platform that can connect millions of people, help government keep our country safe and resilient, and support emerging applications in AI. That is the scale of the opportunity we are bringing into service.”
AST SpaceMobile now has more than 60 gateways deployed, installed, or in planning worldwide. The expansive ground network supports AST SpaceMobile’s global commercial ecosystem with over 60 mobile network operators who cover over 3 billion subscribers, bringing a third layer of connectivity directly into the mobile networks people already use.
AST SpaceMobile has strategic partnerships with AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten Mobile, Bell Canada, TELUS, and stc Group. These relationships provide a direct path to market through partners’ existing mobile services, enabling operators to extend coverage and offer new connectivity options to their subscribers.
Spectrum is a key component of this readiness. AST SpaceMobile combines strategic partner operators’ spectrum with access to mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum, targeting approximately 100 MHz of access in the United States. Its spectrum position includes access to 45 MHz of MSS mid-band spectrum in North America and priority rights to 60 MHz of S-band spectrum globally on a market-by-market basis.
The company’s satellite technology can tune across approximately 1,150 MHz of low- and mid-band frequencies globally, providing flexibility to serve different markets using available partner and satellite spectrum, subject to applicable regulatory approvals.
Supporting this service rollout, AST SpaceMobile’s ground network connects the company’s growing satellite constellation with mobile operators’ core networks, routing voice, video and broadband data between space and ground-based infrastructure, making it a key component of the end-to-end infrastructure required to deliver space-based cellular broadband connectivity through partners to people everywhere they work, live, and travel. This integration enables operators to extend their reach beyond the limits of terrestrial coverage while evolving alongside future 3GPP standards.
In the United States, the Company has already enabled over 3,000 coverage cells and expects to activate the roughly 5,600 cellular cells that cover the continuous United States before year-end. Enabling the remaining digital cells will establish the geographic footprint required to support initial, intermittent service across the contiguous United States and is a prerequisite for nationwide rollout.
AST SpaceMobile Advances Service Readiness Ahead of Initial Space-Based Cellular Broadband Coverage in Key Global Markets
businesswire.com/news/home/2…
$ASTS Successful launch. Pad clear. Next up: BlueBird 14, 15 and 16.
Watch Falcon 9 launch the Bandwagon-5 mission to orbit xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1nxeLMddZ…
$ASTS The Launch Thread
🚨🚨Falcon Spotting - $ASTS Launch🚨🚨
The theory: $ASTS did a deal or swap to take $AMZN's 10 F9 launches (or a subset thereof, or had those slots released to it, or some variation of this), and potentially (this part I care less about) did some sort of swap on New Glenn capacity to give Amazon nearer term availability (massive scale) on NG as its scales Vulcan and NG as its two primary launchers
The amount of DM activity I have received from people hyperventilating (for good reason) about launch availability has had me pinned to my screen for longer than I can remember. If you stare at something long enough, sometimes you can see a pattern...especially when you pester other people to help provide more clues
Peter LINDM🅰️RK retweeted
George Robinson, Head of Government Affairs, VodafoneThree, comments in UK House of Commons Oct 14 meeting of Scottish Affairs
Committee about connectivity in Scotland.
committees.parliament.uk/ora…
$ASTS
@AST_SpaceMobile






























