NEW YORK, March 2, 2026, 17:08 EST
- AST SpaceMobile reports a sharp fourth-quarter revenue increase and a wider loss per share.
- Orange and Vodafone moves underline a fast-moving push to add satellite coverage to mobile networks.
- Investors are watching launch cadence and whether operator agreements turn into paid service.
AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) said quarterly revenue jumped to $54.3 million from $1.9 million a year earlier, while loss per share widened to 26 cents. The satellite-to-smartphone firm said it had more than $3.9 billion of cash and liquidity on a pro forma basis after a February convertible-notes offering, and its shares were up about 10% at $86.92 in late trading. 1
The numbers land in the middle of a scramble by telecom operators to bolt satellite links onto their mobile networks, partly to fill coverage gaps and partly to add a fallback when towers fail. “Direct-to-device” is the shorthand — it means a standard phone can talk to a satellite without special hardware.
Ahead of Monday’s report, a widely tracked set of expectations called for about $41.6 million in fourth-quarter revenue and roughly a 20-cent GAAP loss per share. A recent run of earnings and revenue misses had made this quarter a pressure point for the stock. 2
AST’s recent revenue has been tied to early commercial work and government-related activity as it builds the infrastructure for a wider rollout. A “gateway” is one of the ground stations that ties satellite traffic back into terrestrial networks.
Orange on Monday said it signed a memorandum of understanding with AST SpaceMobile and Satellite Connect Europe — a joint venture between AST and Vodafone — and plans a demonstration in Romania in the second half of 2026 covering voice, SMS and data. “Direct-to-Device satellite connectivity is an essential complement to our mobile networks,” Orange CEO Christel Heydemann said. 3
Orange’s deal adds AST to a roster that already includes satellite providers such as Eutelsat and SpaceX’s Starlink, as the French operator takes what it calls a multi-vendor approach. A company spokesperson told Reuters Orange aims to expand satellite-to-smartphone services across Europe and its African markets, selecting partners based on local conditions such as coverage and gateway availability. 4
Vodafone, meanwhile, said it has signed a deal with Amazon’s low-Earth orbit satellite network to connect 4G and 5G mobile masts in remote parts of Europe and Africa, a separate use case from direct-to-phone links. Vodafone said the service would start in Germany and other European countries this year, and it also plans satellite connections for customers’ standard smartphones with partner AST SpaceMobile, without setting a start date. 5
In pre-earnings commentary, AST has been framed as a company with lots of paper agreements and a hard execution schedule. It has commercial agreements with more than 50 mobile network operators, including AT&T, Verizon and Saudi Telecom Group, covering nearly three billion subscribers, Barchart reported. AST President Scott Wisniewski summed up the sales pitch: “There’s not an operator around the world who doesn’t want to meet with us.” 6
Some investors are now treating the story less as a technology proof and more as a manufacturing-and-launch grind. Crossroads Capital wrote in a fourth-quarter investor letter that AST is shifting from an R&D startup to a scale-up, “laser-focused on execution,” highlighting progress on BlueBird 6 and the push toward a 45–60-satellite target by the end of 2026. 7
But the downside case has not gone away. The business is still loss-making, launches can slip, and building and deploying a constellation is expensive even when the supply chain behaves. Financing helps — but convertible notes are debt that can turn into shares, and dilution risk is part of the package if cash needs rise again.
For investors, the next read is simple: whether the operator list keeps growing, whether tests like Orange’s turn into paid service, and whether AST can hit a steady cadence of launches without blowing out costs.
