AST SpaceMobile: AT&T COO's Bullish Grain Spectrum Post

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[00:00:58] Speaker C: Everyone, thanks for joining. I know it's 8:15 on a Friday night, so actually quite surprised that people are joining on such late notice. But I did want to briefly talk about this LinkedIn post from AT&T Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh. I actually missed this. It was posted yesterday, and I know There were a few people who referred to it, and when I saw it, I thought that it was actually some you know people referring to an old quote from Jeff McElfresh, and then of course the Grain Spectrum news. So I didn't really look at it too closely, but I actually did catch it today because someone had brought it to my attention, and then when I looked at it. I was like, holy crap, how did I miss this? This is one of the most bullish things I've seen recently, and in particular related to Grane's 800 MHz spectrum. And so Jeff Meckelfresh yesterday had posted a congratulations on LinkedIn for AST SpaceMobile receiving an STA from the FCC— that's a lot of acronyms— to test Grane Management's 800 MHz spectrum. And this actually, this post came out before the Bloomberg article hit the wires. And so in particular, Jeff— and there were some space mob who misread this and thought that maybe Jeff was congratulating AST on their previous approval for the 850 MHz spectrum, which happened obviously a long time ago. So that was definitely not the case. And for those that don't know, Jeff is intimately involved with and aware of AST SpaceMobile. And so when John Stenke and Jeff McElfresh talk about AST, John Stenke, you know, defers to Jeff because he knows the most about the working relationship. And so he has intimate knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes. He will be aware of everything that's going on with Legato, also all the testing that's happening with grain management. And so this post is very revealing in that— I'll just read it and then we can talk about it. So in this LinkedIn post, he reposted an article talking about the FCC approving the STA to test with grain management for AST. And in the post, he says, one great musician doesn't make an orchestra. Similarly, connectivity doesn't need just one technology. It needs the right technologies working together in harmony. Last week marked another key milestone for AST SpaceMobile with the work underway to close America's connectivity gaps. Satellite-based internet service isn't a replacement for advanced fiber or 5G connectivity, but rather a complementary technology we'll use to bring AT&T customers the best possible connectivity experience wherever they go. The goal here is simple: help people stay connected in rural communities, remote areas, and other places that can't be reached with traditional wireless and fiber infrastructure. Bullish because the implication is that AST obviously is supportive, or sorry, AT&T is supportive of AST working with Grain Management. This kind of, you know, the reference to this progress building on their joint venture, and then, you know, they talk specifically about demonstrating how industry collaboration can extend reliable coverage. This basically implies that that AT&T and the joint venture are working closely with AST in GRANE to deploy the spectrum for satellite services. And so as we know, GRANE management's 800 MHz, the uplink and the downlink sit right next to AT&T and Verizon's 850 MHz. Both uplink sides and both downlink sides are right, they buttress right next to each other, and so you could easily combine those to create an even wider channel to provide better service. And so this in particular, I mean, this to me suggests that the big carriers are working with AST in the joint venture, and our speculation that somehow, you know, whatever the structure takes, that this spectrum will be put into the joint venture or will be used by joint venture. This kind of codifies that, right? Because why would Jeff make this proclamation and retweet or post on— I don't know what they call it on LinkedIn, maybe repost the Grain Management News. And so this is huge. This kind of negates, you know, if you, if you take what was said in the Bloomberg article yesterday about supposedly, you know, the grain seeking $6 billion in a spectrum sale, and that potentially AST or SpaceX were interested. Obviously, we did hear back from Elon Musk, who said that it was not true. Of course, who knows whether to take his word for it or if he meant certain parts of it were not true. But I think the important takeaway is that AT&T and the joint venture, you can probably piece together that somehow this spectrum is going to go into that joint venture. and support the 3 carriers and that AST will be lighting up the spectrum. So that's my key takeaway. I think it seems pretty clear. And as we know, T-Mobile also has some economic upside from the usage of grain management spectrum. And so I would assume that they probably are leaning pretty heavily on grain management not to sell it to SpaceX because it would be pretty pretty silly for Grain Management to have sold that spectrum in a friendly manner to Grain and then that spectrum to be used against them, right? So anyway, those are my quick comments. I just wanted to talk about it because I think, you know, having missed this and not highlighting it to, you know, everyone kind of following the situation, this is really important, right? And so maybe we'll hear, you know, I think the first round of interest is supposed to be due the first week of September. So that's approximately 2 weeks away. So we should start hearing some news around this process. Or if it's quiet, then that's good too, because AST typically, their side doesn't leak anything. And so if it's quiet, then no news is probably good news. But anyway, just wanted to quickly do a space and talk about that, highlight it for people. And, um, yeah, that's it. So hope everyone will have a good weekend. I'm going away for the weekend, going to the outdoors. I'll take some pictures. And, um, and yeah, hopefully we'll hear some more news, um, perhaps over the weekend. And, you know, I think for Space Mob, in terms of due diligence, I know folks have been a little frustrated about shipping not happening soon enough, but, um, I do think shipping truly is imminent. So keep, um, keep checking your post. Uh, I'm sure we'll get an update perhaps over the weekend. So with that, that's all I have, and I hope everyone has a good weekend and take care.
[00:08:47] Speaker D: Bye.
[00:08:47] Speaker E: Thanks for listening to the AST SpaceMobile Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest news about AST SpaceMobile, make sure to subscribe. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. Listen.
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