AT&T and AST SpaceMobile's Vision to Bridge the Digital Divide

all right well a warm welcome to our viewers and listeners for tuning in to another more insights and strategy Standalone version of the G2 on 5G where we take a break from hot takes on 5G news and we invite industry leaders to the discussion and today I'm super excited to be speaking with Chris sambar he's the president of networks for AT&T and Abel avilan he's the as space mobile chief executive gentlemen how's it going well yeah it's good to talk Chris it's good to talk about and um boy I tell you what you know the

launch on the 12th both of y'all were up pretty early in the morning right I mean unfortunately I had a business trip in London and I couldn't be there at Cape caraval I I was so jealous but Chris I heard you were pretty a struck with with all of it what what what were your impressions well sorry we missed you will um I was absolutely a struck as I told AEL I this was the first time I had had the opportunity to see a rocket launch like this and you know as a kid growing up

in the generation of the space shuttles and never getting to see one of them launch other than on TV it was really cool and um probably you know the technology part of it and the launch was great but what I'll tell you was even better was the enthusiasm of the as investor base that was there yes I hundreds I think maybe over a thousand people about I don't know if you know the count but oh my gosh they're so excited about the technology and what aill and team were doing it was great just great to

see them I've gotten to know them Chris on my social media channels especially on Twitter they've done some memes you know it's uh it uh it's funny so i' I'm I'm I'm famous now I guess I've had two memes produced there but Abel this is an incredibly important milestone for the company I mean you've been the first out there testing um you've been testing for quite some time and um and now you've got five bluebirds in orbit and so from your perspective what should we expect from a coverage standpoint because you and I have spoken

quite a bit and I know this is just the first of a number of series of launches but there's been a lot of hype here what should we expect from this first launch yeah no thank you will so listen as you know this this is the culmination of years of work and uh with with Partners like AT&T and in particular for United States with AT&T and uh what what we will get out of these satellites is we will have nationwide coverage so but not all the time so this we we we will be able to

have we will have enough capacity and enough footprint with this five satellite to cover 5600 lowan sales in the in in in the premium 850 megaherz band um but obviously will not be all the time so it will be it will be in in in intermittent connectivity but what that will allow us to do is to to set up the infrastructure uh connecting to the core network uh and uh basically we have already planning a Distributing thousands of initial test users around the around around the around the around the country to then move into uh

um you know into the full service which it will be similar to what we will get out of these five satellit but then all the time so what we will be able when the satellites are visible to the user they will get a similar experience that they will get when we have more satellites but for a for few for for limited amount of time H and for that we you know we're working we're working in 70 more satellites that we be building as we speak uh we have we have we are preparing to launch more

um we need around 45 satellite to to have full continued service in the US and I think that's impressive when when you think about your one of your competitors uh that's going to take you know five or t times the the number of of satellites to accomplish what you're going to accomplish and you know in you know in Midland you know you and I spent some time and you you showed me how like these these arrays fold up and how compact they were and I was super impressed to see the five bluebirds you know on

a on a a truck headed to Cape Canaveral that that they could all fit on on one track do you want to talk a little bit about the design element that that's gone into the bluebird yeah when I first met with with Chris and Chris team one of the things that that we we we always talk about this has to be completely compatible with the phone that exist today right and it have to be broadband and uh and you need to think about that five six years ago where this was a complete dream and uh

and where people don't even knew if even basic SOS or text was possible but we set the our bar very high we we just want we wanted to make sure that this is a true complement to the to our partners infrastructure uh AT&T at that time provid as the the the spectrum that that that we needed to to set up the system and test it and integrated to the core yeah and uh so what we expecting is a system that allows Broadband connectivity uh of course that depends on the amount of spectrum that is allocated

to this to to to each of the sales that that that that we have but that's that is what we're expecting so that's the reason when you saw a large satellite yeah and that why we need few of them I mean that's another big different uh uh this is a true Broadband completely agnostic to the phone and to the G also that the phone is at so from 2G to 5G and in the future when 6G come available we will be transparent to that uh and for that we build a very large satellite I always

tend to remind people each of these satellite is the largest structure every put into Leo uh so we have six now yeah each one of them have had a on size and the only thing bigger than us is the ISS collectively we're actually bigger than the ISS right but uh and that's that's the principal part of our invention how to do Broadband yeah directly to anybody's cell phone H using large satellit that why we have so many patent and patent pending claims and uh we have done this together with the leadership of of Partners like

AT&T in this case this case Chris and Chris team to to to to make it happen but we deigned from the very beginning how this needed to be together with the with with with our Network Partners you bet you know and everything is bigger in Texas right I living in medland but hey Chris you know you recently were appointed to as space mobiles board of directors and AT&T has made a significant financial investment in the company as well so what what should AT&T customers expect from the partnership you know if you go back uh you

don't have to go back that far five six years ago that there was a significant competitive advantage on the part of Wireless carriers just based on the part the the square miles of the geography of the United States that he covered and there was a race going on to really cover the people and some of the the connectors in between the cities and towns the roads that connect the cities and towns for example and if you fast forward to today at least AT&T and and almost their Verizon we're we're pretty well covered with the population

um we've covered a lot of those connectors but we're at the point in our Network builds where to put cell sites and continue to put them in in really Rural and desolate areas in many cases where there aren't any people you know these are just roads connecting two towns or or up in the mountains or on a valleys or there's cows and a pasture it doesn't make economic sense to put cell sites out there and that's kind of where we are as an industry today and so it rather than put cell sites out there that

are challenging because there's an ongoing cost of maintaining those Sal sites this opportunity with as to provide as AEL said this isn't basic texting service or basic texting with a little bit of voice this is true broadband service to cover the entire us all of those places that are not economical for us to continue to put cell sits out by basically putting the cell sits up in space which is what we're doing but it's so much more elegant and dynamic because these are in low earth orbit they're massive satellites they have phenomenal technology in them

um so we're really excited about it that's why we put our shoulder into it with the large investment that we made I'm honored to be on the boards of than thank you again Abel for that and be part of this the the exciting solution that we're building so I think our AT&T customer base and I hear from them you know relatively frequently um about how excited they are about the solution that's coming yeah you know and and I continue Chris to be impressed with what you and the team are doing to really over invest in

rural especially with your fiber assets and that sort of thing and fiber is so Mission critical to um support back call for for 5G mobile services and you know and I know B you and I have talked on numerous occasions and you're very passionate about the digital divide but I've also been really impressed you know I you know I've I've been to visit you a couple of times and I've seen your clean room um I see what you're doing from a manufacturing process perspective vertical integration you and I have spoken about how you had some

challenges with consistency and you know the things that you needed to put these satellites together but you're also bringing high-tech manufacturing jobs to West Texas that has traditionally been very energy and oil field related in fact my daughter works for Albert and that's what brought me out initially um to see you Abel but can you speak further on on some of these points and in particular I think the job creation opportunity that that as mobile is supporting in in West Texas is just amazing yeah no listen we we are very proud American company and uh

it's an it's amazing what we can do in this in this country and um and uh you know as you said it we like big in Texas and that's and that's that's what one of the reasons why we selected to be there believe it or not we were we had access to big buildings to Big Space permitting was very fast and um and as a result of that we you know we have transformed a lot of people ER that were knowledgeable in Machinery mechanics tooling that came from oil and gas and now they're working in

space I mean they're super happy they're working on a on a clean environment they're working on Hightech and this is a great great um great evolution of what people can do in this region so that's that's uh but uh you know listen we have the in order to solve this problem we needed to invest in so many aspects of space technology we have what we believe is the most advanced or one of the most advanced chips sets H in order to provide Broadband so we have one on A6 we literally start with with a with

aluminium and composite to build the satellites out of that we we are very very close to 95% vertically integrated so we really start with raw components and build very sophisticated and large satellite and and and that's all done in America and uh I believe that partnering with AT&T Verizon and and and others but with AT&T leadership to help us to put get this together I think we will be able to do something that that will be first in in the in the developed world uh that is basically to assure everybody have 5G access regardless where

they live and work and a a while we are creating a lot of employment I mean we we we also at the same time are creating a knowledge base of how to master a space based connectivity in a way that nobody else have done it before yeah and you you know you spoke you know I think just you touched on your patent portfolio you're an inventor as well you have several patents uh that have been issued and lots are pending and you know I I don't think patent counting is necessarily a sign of innovation but

certainly you've got a pretty formidable portfolio and what you're doing is you know from my perspective licensable and it's differentiated and even I loved when you and I last spoke in in Midland and you talked about how you figured out you basically sent a phone into space right during dur during the test phase um and and I found that you know that was that was pretty amazing but you know you kind of to move to Chris you know I think you follow me on on social media and I certainly Chris follow you as well and

and Forbes is a platform that I use and you know I've I've been publishing some some updates here and I kind of made an early call you know I I spent some time with starlink and I spent some time with bell and his team and I guess I'll take my Victory lap now because um I I pointed to you know as space mobile potentially you know really being out in front not only based on its you know highly patented architecture but the fact that it's a very non-competitive business model right so the company is not

marketing like a satellite fixed wireless access service like one of their competitors is um but I know you know Chris and I spoke this was probably last year this was a pretty closely guarded secret right when when you started working with them I think at one point um even Mr stanky wasn't aware of what was going on so hope I'm not revealing too much there but but I'm curious what what was it about Abel and the team that that really you know demonstrated the potential to be where the two companies are today yeah I don't

mind telling the story because it because looking back on it it's pretty funny so it was it's about six years ago give or take and ab B Bel came and he'll you know he says 18th he was the first company he came to and I was the first executive he came to I was responsible for the first net program at the time and um first net was still relatively new so we were getting a lot of you know vendors coming wanting to sell us stuff to make the first net Network more attractive to First Responders

um and uh Abel comes in and I didn't know him personally but I multiple people referred him and said you gotta meet with this guy really sharp stuff he knows the stuff really smart guy and and and by the way today I will I will say and I've said it before I I believe Abel to be one of the great inventors of our time and he's way too humble to acknowledge or or admit that himself but I think that's true and he's just much less flashy than a lot of other Adventures but anyways he was

referred to me so I met with him and he and first thing is you know hey Chris we've got a plan to bring connectivity to 100% of the US geography regardless of whether you have a cell site there or not we're gonna put cell sites up in space he took me through it explained it all to me I thought man that that I don't know I don't know a lot about satellite technology but but I know a little bit about phones and that seems really difficult to do but right he's got good credentials so let's

let's do it and important important note is that he from the beginning he was building a purpose built solution to communicate directly with devices this is six plus years ago he wasn't taking as one of his competitors is doing he wasn't taking a solution that was for a different purpose you know to communicate with a panel on the ground and provide fixed broadband and then retrofitting it with antennas and now causing problems with FCC out ofand emission limits etc etc that they're trying to work through he he didn't do any of that he and his

team was maniacally focused on let's figure out how to provide true broadband service direct to a device unmodified device um from any from any uh manufacturer so yeah that that went on probably four and a four years um there was about maybe a dozen of us inside of AT&T that knew about it was me and our old CTO and um we didn't really tell people about it because it was kind of Skunk Works and let's see if this works and then he puts a phone in space and we thought well that's that's different people don't

usually do that then then he launched blue Walker 3 back in September 22 and and you know at that time there was another announcement coming out and so finally I kind of walked in sheeple to our CEO and coo and I said hey we've had this thing going on with this guy he's really smart let me tell you about it he said why did you tell about this tell us about this sooner yeah I said well it's GNA be great and now you know fast forward holy holy cow what have we accomplished blue Walker 3

worked spectacularly we were getting 20 plus megabit download speeds on unmodified devices from rural you know Hana in Hawaii where there's absolutely no coverage there a total black hole of coverage yeah it's working tremendously now he's got five more salaries so we are incredibly excited about it and he's just he's doing what his original Vision was and he he never strayed from that um so pretty excited it is you know and and all those Milestones you know 2G 3G 4G 5G calls um the the demo that you're talking about Chris from Hawaii that that was

just sort of mind-blowing for me and really really demonstrates the power of what Abel and his vision is all about and Abel I want to come back to that that passion that you have about Bridging the digital divide and it's something that I'm very passionate about as well my father grew up in Brazil on the banks of the Amazon River in a Ford Motor Company town uh you go back there today in the Amazonian region and there's still a lack of connectivity and and that area hasn't progressed in decades um it required my father moving

to the states getting an education to to be able to you know to have an opportunity and that's just not fair you know I you know connectivity should be a human right I I believe that that's your thought as well but what drives this passion about that you have about Bridging the digital divide yeah no listen is it is that it's precisely that I I do believe that everybody regardless where they leave or work should have the same economic opportunities and um and uh it is simply no thir that if you live in Rural America

uh you and in a remote place uh you will have less economic opportunities that you would have if you live in New York in Los Angeles in Miami so I I believe this equalize the opportunity to be part of of the ER economic ecosystem um I believe in democratizing the access to knowledge and information to everybody and I do believe the right conduit for that is your cell phone I mean you know I now I'm you know of course I had a lot of people that help me and and in in in what I do

every day but I I just travel with my phone I I I it's very few things that I can just not do on my phone and uh when you also you know when you you take in consideration the power of the cell phone the power to basically do whatever you need to do regardless of where you are is it's really amazing so and then as you you know in United States I mean we we had access to smartphone expensive phones you you know they literally a a sophisticated a computer that that you can connect to

the internet and do whatever you can do at your office you can do as you moving in your cell phone but if you also think about of these in emerging countries where people have a disposable income that is 12th or less of what what our disposible income is here in the United States yeah where they need to have a low cost phone and and and and they don't have even sophisticated or very you know big electricity system to to to connect it yeah and uh when you talking about a village somewhere in Africa or in

South America or even in Asia in some places I mean the power that any phone even even a locost phone you know $20 or less phone will bring where we can connect anybody where wherever they are I mean I think that's that's amazing I think that's transformational when I when I make and I I was I did exit my previous business very successfully I mean I I did what somebody could consider you know I done everything what I wanted to do uh but this time I wanted to do something that will last for Generations that

would really have an impact in in hopefully in hundreds of million probably billion peoples over time and something that that uh that that really really changeed the world for a little bit a better world more more more more more fair work and I think technology this technology had that that that that feature uh it is difficult has been a a long long long road a long journey luckily I been able to partner with Incredible people like Chris and and and others in the industry um especially in the mobile ecosystem which they have been embracing what

we're doing together we got the end of the day I always say this is a project that only can be done in in partnership with the operators I mean that's they own the customers they own the spectrum they own the they have been doing this for for for 25 years uh and they they they they understand the ecosystem better than anybody else so it's a partnership but I think it's a partnership that really really will make the differ for people's lives and at at this stage of the career and after being successful previously with my

previous companies uh this is really what I wanted to do this time yeah well it you know it's amazing and what you're doing scales globally are are you up to 50 or so I believe memos of understanding and Commercial agreements with the likes of of AT&T right and so what you're doing is scaling and I think it's also important to note that you're working with companies like Nokia as well like you've taken sort of their airscale platform and you've you've really souped it up to to meet the needs of of what you're doing there and

you know Chris I you know I think as we as we begin to wrap the conversation I see AT&T making an equal investment in Bridging the digital divide with what you're doing with fiber so last year I spent time with with John on a fiber tour we were um in Indiana in a in a rural area and and talking about what AT&T was doing to to almost [Music] overinvestment drives as well what you're doing with tribal Nations as well what you're doing with digital Learning Centers because it's one thing to provide connectivity to people that

haven't had it but then teaching them how to use it right so do you want to spend a little bit of time on on on what you're doing there with with fiber and mobility and and and in kind of digital training for for AT&T support sure sure you know it's one of the core values of our company and we're we believe that we're really well positioned as the largest fiber provider in the US and we're also the fastest growing fiber provider in the US but it's very difficult in today's economy um to get by to

get ahead um Ju Just to function in society if you don't have a solid broadband connection and so it's very important to us we feel it's incumbent on us to be able to provide that connection for people and I we always say you know it's a three-legged stool is the way I like to characterize it the Broadband connectivity is just one leg of the stool so you need an actual connection then you need the applications whatever the applications are if it's a student you need the application to be able to access it um The Learning

material that you're trying to learn and then you need the training and know how to be able to use it that's the third leg of the stool and so we're working on not just providing the Broadband connectivity but the other two legs helping with the applications developing the ecosystem for application developers and then the training as you said with the connected Learning Center so you know um this initiative with the Bel is right in our wheelhouse and that's why we're so engaged and excited about it he told me down in Cape Canaveral he said you

know Chris you guys did a great thing with firstnet um and we we're connecting you know police fire emergency medical and a lot of others we've created this ecosystem of really solid connectivity that goes above and beyond what they could previously get from from connectivity providers and he says we're going to do something just like that with as space mobile we're going to connect the unconnected not just in the US but globally so he's got a huge Vision he's got a proven track record um and he's a like I said one of the great inventors

of our time so we couldn't be more excited to be partnering with him on this well I couldn't asked for a better way to close Chris uh the discussion I think you very eloquently summed it up but I want to thank both you and abelle again um I always enjoy speaking with you I learn something new every time and I hope our viewers and listeners found this episode out of this world sorry guys I had to had to go with that there but I'm you know I'm bummed that my colleague onel sag couldn't join us

um he had a prior commitment but um for anyone out there that would like to provide he and I Insight on a future 5G uh topic for for a podcast you can hit us up on X I'm at willtown Tech and you can find enel at at anel sag and I just want to thank everyone again for tuning in viewing listening and don't forget to uh hit the like button and subscribe to our podcast