AST SpaceMobile secures Brazilian spectrum for satellite calls

By Amara Osei

AST SpaceMobile has secured Brazilian approval to use 30 MHz of S-band spectrum and secondary access to as much as 20 MHz in the 700 MHz band, ahead of a planned limited direct-to-device satellite telephony service.

The Oct. 28, 2026 announcement gives AST permission to operate over Brazil, Latin America's largest economy. Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency, Anatel, granted the spectrum authorizations, but no commercial launch date or subscriber forecast accompanied them.

That distinction matters. Regulatory access is not a working network, and more than 200 million handset lines do not make 200 million satellite users. AST still has ground infrastructure to install and four operator integrations to complete.

What has Anatel authorized?

Anatel's approval has two parts:

• S-band: AST received authorization for 15+15 MHz, or 30 MHz in total, for its planned Brazilian service.
• Secondary 700 MHz use: The company can use up to 10+10 MHz, equivalent to as much as 20 MHz, within the respective licensed areas of four mobile operators.

In paired-spectrum terms, AST has 15 MHz each way in S-band, compared with up to 10 MHz each way for secondary 700 MHz use. The complementary resources underpin AST's plan for space-based cellular broadband beyond terrestrial coverage, particularly in rural and non-served regions.

One authorization comes directly from Anatel; the 700 MHz permission depends on the operator agreements and applies where those partners hold licenses. That makes the four commercial relationships part of the regulatory design, not merely a retail arrangement.

These are planned capabilities, not measured service results. AST says its system will support voice calls, broadband data and video streaming directly on standard, unmodified smartphones. The announcement gives no throughput, latency or coverage figures against which to test those claims.

How does the business model work?

AST's stated model is to work with local telecom operators on a “‘revenue share’ of the cash that comes from connecting users in rural or non-served regions.” In practice, AST and terrestrial operators would divide revenue generated from those connections.

No revenue split, wholesale rate, minimum guarantee or customer tariff appears in the announcement. That leaves the commercial mechanics neatly summarized and the arithmetic unpublished. The operators supply the licensed-spectrum relationship; AST supplies the space-based service proposition.

This structure could let AST use established mobile operators to reach customers while sharing connection revenue. It does not remove the need for technical integration, and none of those operational details has a timetable.

What will the rollout involve?

AST has signed agreements with four regional mobile network operators, although the announcement does not name them. The company also plans to install ground infrastructure in Brazil to support what it calls “connect-anywhere capabilities” for more than 200 million handset lines.

The agreements matter because the 700 MHz permission applies inside those operators' licensed areas. They also give AST local operating partners for reaching users outside terrestrial coverage. AST has disclosed neither the ground-site locations nor the number of sites, and the announcement contains no investment total or schedule for installing them.

The handset-line figure supplies scale, but not a subscriber forecast. AST has not said how many of Brazil's lines it expects to serve, what share of connections would use satellites, or when ordinary customers could buy the service.

Where does Brazil's satellite competition stand?\n

Brazil has also granted Starlink a similar ruling. The spectrum awarded to AST was previously assigned to EchoStar and Omnispace, adding another layer of regulatory history to the allocation.

Omnispace has since merged with Lynk Global to form Elveo, which has global ambitions to serve the direct-to-device market. The announcement provides no terms for Starlink's ruling and no Brazilian deployment plan for Elveo.

For AST, the immediate competitive advantage is specific: it now has quantified spectrum access, four operator agreements and a plan for ground infrastructure. Its immediate gaps are equally specific: no launch date, coverage footprint or paying-customer target.

When does this become a service?

The next gates are straightforward. AST must build the ground infrastructure, integrate with four mobile operators and publish a commercial timetable under its Anatel approvals; none of those milestones has a date in the Oct. 28 announcement.

Anatel has settled the spectrum-access question. AST now has to turn permission into infrastructure and connections. Until then, Brazil's 200 million handset lines remain a potential customer base, not a satellite subscriber count. The next useful update will be dates and coverage numbers, not another market-size estimate.