{"id":509738,"date":"2026-03-02T16:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:17:09","slug":"orange-adds-ast-spacemobile-to-growing-roster-of-satellite-to-mobile-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509738\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange adds AST SpaceMobile to growing roster of satellite-to-mobile partners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">By Leo Marchandon<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">March 2 (Reuters) &#8211; French telecommunications leader Orange on Monday announced a partnership with AST SpaceMobile and \u200cSatellite Connect Europe, a joint venture between AST and \u200cVodafone, to boost direct-to-cell connectivity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Direct-to-device satellite services allow standard <a href=\"https:\/\/tech.yahoo.com\/phones\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:smartphones;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">smartphones<\/a> to connect to \u200bsatellites without specialized hardware, which is particularly valuable in markets where terrestrial infrastructure remains patchy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Demonstrations covering voice, SMS and data are planned in Romania for late 2026, Orange said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The partnership adds AST \u200cto Orange&#8217;s growing roster \u2060of satellite providers that also include European Eutelsat and SES, Elon Musk&#8217;s Starlink and Canada&#8217;s Telesat, as \u2060the French telecom operator pursues a deliberate multi-vendor approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">A company spokesperson told Reuters that Orange aimed to expand satellite-to-smartphone operations across \u200bEurope and \u200bits African markets, selecting the \u200bmost suitable partner for each \u200cmarket based on local conditions including satellite coverage, ground gateway availability and smartphone penetration rates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">This multi-provider approach also ensures service resilience during emergencies, Orange said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">European telecom operators are racing to offer satellite connectivity, with companies such as Spain&#8217;s Telefonica or Ukraine&#8217;s Kyivstar \u200calso announcing partnerships with satellite firms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Satellite \u200bConnect Europe, formed last November, aims \u200bto establish a Europe-based \u200bsatellite constellation with an operational centre in Germany, targeting \u200cboth commercial and government satellite-to-smartphone \u200bconnectivity applications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Orange CEO \u200bChristel Heydemann has been a vocal advocate for European satellite sovereignty, calling for competitiveness in networks like the European \u200bUnion&#8217;s planned IRIS2 initiative \u200cversus rivals such as Elon Musk&#8217;s Starlink and Amazon&#8217;s \u200bupcoming low Earth orbit network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">(aiReporting by Leo Marchandon in \u200bGdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Leo Marchandon March 2 (Reuters) &#8211; French telecommunications leader Orange on Monday announced a partnership with AST&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[33975,49,48,202771,6371,44026,202770,66,306],"class_list":["post-509738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ast-spacemobile","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-european-telecom-operators","tag-orange","tag-satellite-connectivity","tag-satellite-firms","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}