[vel0city]

> If you've used old style satellite internet

AST's satellite wasn't "old style satellite internet". It was at an altitude of 513km. That's roughly the same altitude as SpaceX's satellites (~550km).

AST's satellite was absolutely "new technology", last September.

SpaceX was beat for the "first phone service satellites", even for low orbit 5G satellites with unmodified phones.

https://ast-science.com/2023/09/19/ast-spacemobile-achieves-...

[Dylan16807]

I wish everything wouldn't be referred to as just "5G".

Looks like they used 800MHz, so basically the longest range cell phone bands. Which is about as expected, none of that super-fragile millimeter wave stuff.

SpaceX is using 1900MHz, which will make a difference but probably not a huge difference.

[wmf]

5G NR can run on any band; it's not specific to mmwave.

[Dylan16807]

I know. But 90% of articles call specific arbitrary subsets "5G" and it gets annoying to have the details skipped. By 5G does an article mean the incremental improvements, the expansion in mid-range frequencies, or the mmwave stuff? It's a crapshoot.

Let alone more subtle but important information like whether it's 5G in both directions.

[belltaco]

That doesn't sound like two years ago.

[pkaye]

How many satellites does it have up in space?

[ben_w]

So far as I can tell, two prototypes, and they're waiting on licensing for a few hundred more to become operational.

[newsclues]

No operational ones for customers. Those are scheduled to launch this year