$ASTS: It was long guided by @AST_SpaceMobile that initial noncontinuous service would begin with 25 BlueBirds (5 Block 1 plus 20 Block 2). However, on the Q2 earnings call, @scottwisniews hinted at pulling beta service forward by the end of the year with fewer than 25 BBs in his reply to Louie Dipalma of @WilliamBlair. 👇 Louie Dipalma, William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division Great. Thanks Scott. And you discussed the beta trials. What is the timing in terms of when consumers will be able to trial your network? I know that you don't want to speak on behalf of your carrier partners, but have they given any sense on when the generic AT&T and Verizon customers will be able to test out the service? And related to that, if there are like 25 satellites in orbit, from a general location in the United States, what percentage of the day will a satellite be overhead such that consumers will be able to connect to your network? Scott Wisniewski, President & Chief Strategy Officer, AST SpaceMobile Thanks, Louie. So getting the capability ready for consumers is something that we're targeting for later in 2026. How we go to market with that, how we use that, of course, like you said, we're going to defer to our partners and there'll be announcements on that in the right way. But we're very focused on enabling that. And there's a lot that you can do separate, apart from the space. So those 2 are kind of separate. And so while we've historically said 25 satellites is the right way to think about it, we have great flexibility there on how we do beta. So for us, it's all about racing forward towards putting satellites in the air and then racing towards getting a scaled beta available because, of course, the steps from a scaled beta to commercial service is pretty quick. It's just a function of satellites in orbit. And in terms of our -- about 25 satellites, like you said, that's -- there's a lot of variance there, but think about it as about half the day coverage.

$ASTS: @AST_SpaceMobile just edited their latest tweet about 7 hours after posting, scrubbing the reference to starting service in Japan by year end 2026. First, that was sloppy. No excusing that. Especially as this was definitely not the first time that they edited a tweet several hours after posting. Usually it would be for a silly typo (which is also sloppy as shit). This time, they removed a meaningful piece of information. In my view, it is one of two likely reasons they made the edit: + The timeline is a mistake as in they won’t start service by year end with @Rakuten_Mobile, or + AST wasn’t supposed to publish the timeline themselves because they have always deferred timeline announcements to their partners. Couple of pieces of supporting evidence for the latter theory that the timeline to service is still this year: 1) Only about 7 days ago, Rakuten was handing out brochures promoting a Q4 service start at an industry conference/event. See the quoted post below for the brochure. 2) Only 2 days ago, AST PR’d that they would start service this year. (I think maybe the PR was safe but not the tweet because the PR did not directly say which MNOs they would start service with. Yes they named their MNO strategic partners in the PR somewhere but it wasn’t directly in a statement about service starting in 2026.) Stay tuned 🤷‍♂️

楽天の2026年第四半期 国内サービス行けるのか？

$ASTS: My updated summary of @AST_SpaceMobile post-Q2 2026 update 👇 PROVEN TECHNOLOGY + Broadband D2D technology, protected by over 3,900 patents and patent-pending claims + Demonstrated peak data rate of 98.9 Mbps over international waters in a 10 MHz channel using Block 1, achieving a peak spectral efficiency of ~10 bits/Hz + Block 2 BlueBirds anticipated to nearly double the speeds of Block 1 + Successfully unfolded 4 of 4 of the largest phased arrays in LEO with BB6, BB8, BB9 and BB10 (~223 sqm antennas). + Proven seamless satellite-to-satellite handover + Actively working on ~10 distinct non-communications use cases, each in various stages of maturity and each having potential to grow into government contracts worth "hundreds of millions" of annual revenue each. Multi-billion dollar opportunity to start in 2027. + Actively demonstrating low band radar applications to the US government, supporting the needs of Golden Dome and the Arsenal of Freedom. + Proprietary ASIC with up to 10 GHz of processing bandwidth per satellite enables 10x throughput improvement relative to Block 1 satellites and up to 10x improvement in user experience unlocked through AI-enabled spectrum management + Native cellular architecture favors MNOs and regulators using existing commercially trusted baseband ground-based hardware, with traffic remaining in-country + Additional applications include non-communications, USG secure communications, additional funded networks, Internet of Things (IoT), federal emergency, and AI edge compute PARTNERSHIPS + Multiple 5 to 10 year commercial definitive agreements and/or equity investments with major key MNOs around the world: AT&T, FirstNet, Verizon, Vodafone, STC Group, Bell, and Telus. + Deployed over 3,000 low band cells in the US with expectation to deploy the remaining cells in 2026 to light up the roughly 5,600 cells that cover the US. + Actively collaborating with Meta and Google, including an equity investment from Google. + Over 60 memorandums of understanding and agreements with global MNOs who collectively cover over 3B subscribers. + Approximately 50 gateways are in various stages of completion, installation and planning across 20 markets. + In Q2 alone delivered 13 gateways to 7 customers across 5 continents. + European joint venture with Vodafone: Satellite Connect Europe, which is actively doing network integration and testing with Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Axian Telecom, VodafoneThree UK, Vodafone Ireland, Romania, and Ukraine, CK Hutchison Group, Sunrise, and Taiwan Mobile + Japanese joint venture in progress with Rakuten, including preliminary award of J-LEO which will provide ~1B of non-dilutive non-debt government capital. + In discussion with other government parties for J-LEO type constellations (G20, NATO). + Prime Contractor to the US government + Teaming agreement with Fairwinds for communications applications for the US government/military REGULATORY/SPECTRUM + Full FCC commercial approval for 248 BlueBird satellites, which includes access to a total of up to 53x53 MHz low band MNO spectrum in the US + Total 543 satellite constellation filed to the ITU + 1,150 MHz low and mid-band tunable MNO spectrum globally + 80 year access to Ligado's 45 MHz of MSS L-band in North America + Actively testing 7 MHz + 7 MHz nationwide low band spectrum in the US with Grain + 60 MHz of AST SpaceMobile-licensed S-band spectrum priority rights globally on a market-by-market basis + 10 MHz + 10 MHz MSS S band awarded by Anatel in Brazil for D2D + Targeting 10 MHz + 10 MHz MSS S band in Europe post WRC-27 CONTRACTS/REVENUE BACKLOG + ~$1.3B of contracted revenue backlog + Rapidly growing government revenue backlog including having won 3 awards from the US government with an aggregate value of over 125M supporting multiple national security applications + On track for 150M to 200M revenue in 2026 + Anticipates ~1B revenue in 2027 with expectation for ~500M being government and the remainder to be gateways and commercial service revenue. MANUFACTURING AND LAUNCH + 12 commercial BlueBird satellites in orbit + Next 3 BlueBirds (BB14-16) ready to ship shortly + 10 launches booked with 2 launch providers to put approximately 45 BlueBirds in orbit in early 2027 + Standby launch contract with undisclosed medium/heavy lift vehicle + Up to BB46 in various stages of assembly, with microns completed to BB36 + Phased arrays assembled to at least BB28 (as of May 11, 2026) + Manufacturing pace supports a launch cadence of every 1 to 2 months on average + Over 500,000 sqft of manufacturing and operations globally + Additional 400,000 sqft of manufacturing to come in Midland, Texas, to support government and non-government applications, bringing the total close to 1,000,000 sqft when complete + Investments completed to enable a production capacity of 6 satellites per month with room to grow to 10 or 12 per month via automation and facility expansions + Dedicated micron production facility in Texas is now fully operational, with capacity to support over 10 satellites’ worth of microns per month + Over 2,000 global workforce MILESTONE BLUEBIRD NUMBERS + <25 for initial beta service for internal, non-commercial MNO, and government testing. + 25 for initial noncontinuous service in selected, targeted geographical markets + 45 to 60 for continuous service in key markets such as US/Europe/Japan/Canada/Saudi Arabia/India/equatorial coverage + 90 for global continuous coverage + 248 for full complete constellation + 543 for full planned # of satellites as filed to the ITU CASH/LIQUIDITY + Robust >3.7B cash/liquidity on current balance sheet, fully funded for the build and launch of over 100 BlueBird satellites + OpEx: ~400M for 2026 + CapEx: Q3 expected to be in the range of $350M to $425M primarily driven by the timing of launch payments