Connecting the Dots: AST SpaceMobile’s Global Momentum Just Accelerated
Taking a Look at AST SpaceMobile's (ASTS) Progress.
This week we took a look at the recent flurry of PR’s made by AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) & what it means for the company. Shares of ASTS upon these developments have pushed the stock up over $40/per share on the week. There have been three major updates — & if you’ve been following this story like we have, you know these aren’t just “press release” wins. They’re material inflection points for visibility, spectrum capacity, & international execution. Here's what we’ve been tracking (and what premium readers get the full breakdown on):
ASTS Joins the Russell 1000 Index: Visibility Upgrade
Effective after the market close on June 27, AST SpaceMobile is set to join the Russell 1000 Index — a benchmark tracking the largest 1,000 U.S. companies by market cap. That’s not just a badge of honor. Roughly $10.6T in assets are benchmarked against Russell indexes, meaning ASTS could see meaningful passive inflows from index funds and increased liquidity. This inclusion marks a new phase of recognition for the company as it matures from moonshot to mainstay.
Why this matters: Gaining entry into the Russell 1000 expands ASTS’s audience — institutional investors, large-cap indexers, and momentum allocators now have to take notice. It adds structural visibility to the story, right as the company shifts from R&D mode to commercial-phase execution.
The 45 MHz Spectrum Deal: Mid-Band Muscle
In one of the biggest announcements in ASTS’s history, the company unveiled a term sheet agreement with Ligado, Inmarsat, and Viasat that gives ASTS long-term access to up to 45 MHz of premium mid-band spectrum across the U.S. and Canada — the largest nationwide block available. If finalized, this spectrum will complement ASTS’s low-band holdings and supercharge throughput to 120 Mbps speeds (yes, that’s broadband from space, directly to regular smartphones). The financing? A $550M non-recourse institutional loan backed by spectrum value, not dilutive to the business — and already fully committed.
Why this matters: This isn’t just “more spectrum.” It’s the spectrum ASTS needed to unlock a high-capacity, revenue-generating network that can support full data, video, and voice applications. Combined with their existing low-band footprint, it gives ASTS the backbone for U.S. and Canada coverage at scale — and a cleaner story to take to regulators and commercial partners. The deal is subject to court and regulatory approvals, expected by end of June, but it’s a fundamental piece of ASTS’s monetization roadmap.
India Partnership: Real-World Deployment Starts Now
ASTS also announced a strategic partnership with Vodafone Idea (Vi) to bring satellite-based broadband to India — one of the largest and most underserved telecom markets in the world. The partnership will align with India’s “Digital India” initiative, targeting remote and rural areas. ASTS will handle the satellite side, Vi will manage ground infrastructure, spectrum, and regulatory coordination. The goal? Seamless 4G/5G connectivity to unmodified phones, from the sky — no apps, no special hardware, no local towers.
Why this matters: India has 1.1B mobile subscribers, but coverage gaps remain a huge challenge across vast rural areas. This is ASTS’s first announced operator-led deployment in a Tier-1 global telecom market — and a clear proof point that its model is being adopted by major incumbents. It also signals a commercial path forward: once coverage is in place, expect IoT, enterprise, and government verticals to emerge as monetizable use cases. This is not pilot-phase anymore — this is ecosystem buildout.
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We hope these bite-sized insights are beneficial to you, giving an abstract on their milestones & execution. If you’re curious about the full report — including our detailed breakdowns, Portfolio Dashboard, & Intrinsic Value Tracker modeling for ASTS — you might consider joining us (along with 100s of other investors) as a premium subscriber at Pierce Capital Research. We dive into the nuances & numbers behind updates like these to help you understand their real impact.
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