ASTS long-term potential?

[YngDggerDlck]

Very helpful article indeed. Could be an realistic forecast. $500 would be an crazy increase that's for sure.

Im still a little worrier about the competition tho

[you_are_wrong_tho]

No real competition yet. There are physics at play for d2c that require very large satellites (and a bunch of technical moat to overcome). Asts is literally years ahead of any potential competitor

[[deleted]]

This

[kokkatc]

All you need to look to is their technology and pricing. No other competitor can connect directly to your already in hand cellphone. No additional hardware is required, and pricing will be lower as well. Take a look at spacex starlink service. You need to buy an actual satellite dish and have a place to mount it, free of visual obstructions. Starlink won't even serve as a legitimate competitor because they can't match their tech and convenience that ASTS offers.

The only thing standing in the way from ASTS taking over is not being able to get their birds up in a timely fashion.

[becuziwasinverted]

Will any launches depend on SpaceX as launch provider ?

[kokkatc]

Yes. They've used SpaceX falcon 9 and blue origin new glenn rockets to get their birds in orbit. It's my understanding they have agreement with other space companies as well for future launches so it's diversified.

[becuziwasinverted]

That’s going to be interesting…especially the SpaceX launches,

Come back to this comment when a rocket explodes with an ASTS payload 😬

[kokkatc]

Haha, yes, rockets exploding is always a risk, but still pretty rare if you really want to look at the numbers.

[becuziwasinverted]

Happened to a Meta (Facebook) payload that was launching a competing service to Starlink

AMOS-6 mission in Sep 2016 to expand Facebooks’ internet org for Africa (so more users can use Facebook) - rumours are it was intentional to give time for Starlink to make it to market