BRITISH telecom firm Vodafone has beaten tech billionaire Elon Musk in the mobile phone space race.
The breakthrough will make the UK the first to connect calls to standard handsets via satellites.
Vodafone has beaten tech billionaire Elon Musk in the mobile phone space race[/caption]
It means calls can switch between space and normal mast networks automatically.
And users stuck in remote locations such as mountains or out at sea can also use the tech to connect to broadband internet to get a signal.
Unlike current satellite phones, users will not need a special dish, terminal or more expensive handset.
Vodafone boss Margherita Della Valle yesterday revealed she had made a call using the tech to an engineer in a remote mountain region of Wales “which had never had a phone signal”.
The achievement comes 40 years after the UK’s first mobile phone call — made at midnight on January 1, 1985, by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest, the founder of Vodafone.
Vodafone invested in AST SpaceMobile in 2018.
There are five satellites it works with, allowing the firm to test mobile broadband connectivity directly to existing smartphones at peak data transmission speeds.
AST SpaceMobile operates the only mobile broadband network in space that works directly with standard smartphones for multiple users.
And it means Vodafone is ahead of Musk, whose Starlink network has so far only managed text messages in tests connecting regular phones to low Earth orbit satellite constellations.
Ms Della Valle said the breakthrough would mean everyone will “be connected, no matter where they are”.
She went on: “This will help close the digital divide, supporting people to keep in touch with family and friends, or work, as well as ensuring reliable rural connectivity in an emergency.”
After further testing, the service is set to be rolled out by the end of the year before expanding into Europe.
Vodafone said the tech will be available only to its customers. It is yet to determine the pricing of packages but will “aim to make it accessible”.
A spokesman said users would have to be outdoors, rather than underground, to be able to use the service.
Tim Peake, the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station in 2015, welcomed the move.
He said: “I can appreciate the value in being able to communicate with family and friends from remote and isolated locations.”
Normal calls and video messages work by pinging a signal from a phone to a radio on a mast.
The signal then travels via underground cables or fibre networks to the closest tower mast to the recipient, which then pings it to their phone.
The new tech will send the signal to a satellite then back to a gateway before switching to the normal network.
