Quick answer: November 10, 2026 is the day AST SpaceMobile turned its earnings call into an AI pitch: satellite-based AI inference work with Google and Meta, a revenue path past 1 billion dollars in the year after commercial launch, and a live satellite-to-phone handoff with AT&T already demonstrated. The same day, Vodacom said it will "more than likely" pick AST for satellite-to-phone service in South Africa, Amazon Leo confirmed its first Vulcan launch for November 13, SpaceX's orbital data centre filing and its Nvidia-powered StarMind plan both moved into focus, and Canada's satellite operators filed a 4.3 billion dollar plan to clear the Upper C-band. All 20 items carry honest status labels, with FAQ and 20 linked sources.
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📑 In this article
At a glance: all 20 developments
| # | Development | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AST SpaceMobile Q3: AI inference work with Google and Meta, 1 billion dollar revenue path | Reported |
| 2 | AST and AT&T demonstrate live ground-to-satellite handoff; Firefly Blacklift package over 1.3 billion dollars | Demonstrated |
| 3 | Vodacom targets satellite-to-phone in South Africa by end of 2027, likely with AST | Announced |
| 4 | AST SpaceMobile securities class action: lead plaintiff deadline November 13 | Watch |
| 5 | Adaspace puts AI on satellites and lists in Hong Kong on November 13 | In progress |
| 6 | QMIC and Es'hailSat sign MoU on AI-driven satellite operations | Announced |
| 7 | SpaceX files for up to one million orbital data centre satellites | Filed |
| 8 | SpaceX and Nvidia StarMind AI1: first orbital data centre launch targeted for Q3 2027 | Planned |
| 9 | Amazon Leo LV-01: 40 satellites on Vulcan's return to flight, November 13 | Scheduled |
| 10 | Amazon Leo builds its 1,000th satellite; production now 27 a week | In progress |
| 11 | SES, Eutelsat and Telesat file Upper C-band plans worth about 4.3 billion dollars | Filed |
| 12 | T-Mobile T-Satellite at 10 dollars a month, open to AT&T and Verizon customers | Live |
| 13 | SpaceX reportedly seeks access to about 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile | Unconfirmed |
| 14 | Canada signs 2.3 billion Canadian dollar Telesat Lightspeed contract | Signed |
| 15 | Telesat faces 2.2 billion dollar debt deadline on December 6 | Watch |
| 16 | Globalstar asks FCC to scrutinise Rocket Lab's 8 billion dollar Iridium deal | Filed |
| 17 | Nokia VMO2 AI-RAN trial hits 20 percent gain — on Marvell silicon, not Nvidia | Trial |
| 18 | Dell'Oro: top five vendors control 96 percent of the RAN market | Reported |
| 19 | VodafoneThree picks Ericsson for 12.5 billion kronor core modernisation | Signed |
| 20 | 2026 satellite report: Starlink past 11,000 satellites, Eutelsat LEO revenue up 69.5 percent | Reported |
📡 AST's billion-dollar AI pitch
AST SpaceMobile had the loudest day in satellite telecom. Its third-quarter earnings call on November 9 was less a results update than a pitch for a second business: running AI in space for the biggest tech companies on Earth. The same week brought a live network handoff with AT&T, a likely new customer in South Africa, and a court deadline that shows the other side of the story — investors who say the company promised too much, too soon.
1. AST SpaceMobile Q3: AI inference work with Google and Meta, 1 billion dollar revenue path REPORTED
AST SpaceMobile's third-quarter earnings call on November 9 put satellite AI at the centre of the company's story. Chief executive Abel Avellan said AST is working with Google, an existing investor, Meta and other technology companies on satellite-based AI inference, with applications that go beyond smartphones to cars, drones, machines and smaller devices. The company maintained its 2026 revenue forecast of 150 million to 200 million dollars, with potential upside from recent contracts, and said revenue could exceed 1 billion dollars in the 12 months after commercial service launch. The quarter itself was a loss of 0.44 dollars per share, narrower than the 0.45 dollars expected. AST targets intermittent nationwide service activation by the end of 2026 through partners in the United States, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, followed by consumer beta trials in early 2027, and about 45 BlueBird satellites in orbit by mid-2027, with launch agreements covering more than 100 satellites across 2027 and 2028. The market liked the AI message: the shares jumped 9 percent on Monday to 36.89 dollars, their best session in over four months, after the Rakuten joint venture news of the same day. The honest read is that the AI revenue is still a plan, not a contract — but it is now the plan the company is selling.
2. AST and AT&T demonstrate live ground-to-satellite handoff; Firefly Blacklift package over 1.3 billion dollars DEMONSTRATED
AST and AT&T announced on November 2 a live ground-to-satellite handoff, tested on October 21 near Granite Falls, Washington, showing a phone session staying connected as coverage changes between a ground network and a satellite. The handoff is the technical step that turns satellite-to-phone from a coverage patch into a real service: a call or data session must survive the switch without dropping. AT&T and AST already have a definitive commercial agreement running through 2030, and the announcement describes beta and commercial service as the next steps. Separately, AST has signed a rocket engine and licensing package with Firefly valued at more than 1.3 billion dollars for its planned reusable Blacklift rocket, which targets first use in late 2028. Blacklift is AST's answer to its biggest structural problem: it needs dozens of large BlueBird satellites in orbit and cannot depend on other companies' rockets forever. Outside launches remain part of the deployment plan, but owning the rocket would cut the cost and the queue. The contrast with Starlink remains stark — Starlink's T-Satellite service with T-Mobile is already commercial, while AST has demonstrated the handoff but has not yet proved the business.
3. Vodacom targets satellite-to-phone in South Africa by end of 2027, likely with AST ANNOUNCED
Vodacom Group is targeting a commercial satellite-to-phone service in South Africa towards the end of 2027, chief executive Shameel Joosub told TechCentral on November 10 after the release of the group's interim results, and it will "more than likely" partner with AST SpaceMobile. The service would connect ordinary smartphones directly to low Earth orbit satellites, filling gaps where terrestrial coverage is unavailable or uneconomic, and Vodacom will dedicate some of its spectrum to satellite — which is one reason Joosub wants South Africa's 2G and 3G networks switched off, since direct-to-cell services do not work on 2G or 3G phones. Vodafone Group, Vodacom's UK parent, has backed AST SpaceMobile since 2020 and used its satellites for what it called the world's first satellite video call from a standard smartphone in January 2025. Vodacom already has a commercial relationship with Starlink, but Joosub clarified that it covers broadband connectivity rather than direct-to-mobile services; Starlink is live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique under Vodacom, and has no South African licence. The competition is already moving: Airtel Africa switched on a commercial Starlink Mobile service in the DRC in August, carrying text messages and light data such as WhatsApp but not voice, and MTN made South Africa's first satellite direct-to-mobile test call with Lynk Global in March 2025. Vodacom is also exploring AI data centre hubs in South Africa and Kenya, following a proposed 1 billion dollar investment in Egypt, where Vodafone Egypt is partnering with Elsewedy Electric and Cassava Technologies on what is described as the country's first sovereign AI data centre.
4. AST SpaceMobile securities class action: lead plaintiff deadline November 13 WATCH
A securities class action against AST SpaceMobile has a lead plaintiff deadline of November 13, 2026, with the class period running from March 4, 2025 through July 15, 2026. The complaint alleges the company overstated the sufficiency of its capital position and the durability of its competitive lead in satellite direct-to-cellular service, and that evidence of slow user adoption in the United States and Japan went undisclosed while the company described itself as the leader in the field. The filings point to the September 2025 deal in which SpaceX agreed to acquire EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licences, with S-band spectrum reported at approximately 19 billion dollars, as the event that reshaped the field. The numbers cited in the complaint are sharp: Starlink launched 3,169 satellites in 2025 against seven by AST since 2017, Starlink reported 6 million monthly direct-to-device users in 2025, and early carrier figures from Japan suggested only about 6 percent of one partner's wireless base had subscribed. Analysts have moved too: UBS cut its price target to 43 dollars from 62 dollars and Scotiabank moved to Sell with a 45.60 dollar target. None of this is a court finding — it is an allegation, and the company will defend it — but it is the counterweight to the billion-dollar pitch in item 1, and it explains why the November 13 deadline matters to anyone watching the stock.
🧠 AI moves into orbit
The second big theme of the day is compute leaving the ground. A Chinese company is about to list in Hong Kong on the strength of satellites that run AI models in orbit, Qatar's satellite operator is signing up AI help for its operations, and SpaceX is now talking openly — in filings and on conference stages — about data centres in space. The idea was science fiction two years ago; this week it has a stock listing, a memorandum and a launch date.
5. Adaspace puts AI on satellites and lists in Hong Kong on November 13 IN PROGRESS
Adaspace, a Chengdu company that builds satellites for customers, expects its shares to begin trading in Hong Kong on November 13 — and its pitch to investors is no longer just hardware. The company launched its first AI application satellite in December 2018, put 12 computing satellites into a single orbital plane in May 2025, and added a second group of eight in October 2026. Between those launches it reported deploying Alibaba's Qwen3 model on a satellite already in orbit, and a team running a traffic-analysis model on an Adaspace satellite showed the spacecraft could process imagery before sending the analysis back to Earth. Under its Star-Compute plan, Adaspace wants to link satellites so they can share computing capacity, storage and software, aiming to launch 100 satellites under the plan by the end of 2028. The business is shifting with it: satellites and related services accounted for 57.7 percent of revenue in the first half of 2026, up from 0.6 percent in 2023, and by October 20 the company had customer orders for 114 AI satellites still to be delivered, with a combined contract value of 3.48 billion renminbi. The model is simple to state and hard to execute: sell computing time in orbit, not just metal. The listing will test whether public markets believe it.
6. QMIC and Es'hailSat sign MoU on AI-driven satellite operations ANNOUNCED
Qatar Mobility Innovations Center, a national research and innovation centre owned by Qatar University, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Es'hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, to explore collaboration in artificial intelligence and related technologies, with a focus on enhancing operational troubleshooting and decision-support capabilities. The agreement, published on November 10, marks a step toward applied AI research for satellite operations: examining how AI might assist in analysing and interpreting operational incidents through relevant data and technical insight. The collaboration combines QMIC's expertise in applied research, AI and intelligent systems with Es'hailSat's operational experience and technical knowledge. It is an MoU, not a deployed system, and no product, timeline or commercial value has been published — but it is the kind of agreement that shows where the industry's AI spending is actually going first: not into headline-grabbing constellations, but into the unglamorous work of keeping satellites healthy, diagnosing faults faster and making better decisions from operational data. For a satellite operator, a fault caught hours earlier can be worth more than a new transponder.
7. SpaceX files for up to one million orbital data centre satellites FILED
SpaceX asked the United States Federal Communications Commission on January 30, 2026 for authority to launch and operate up to one million satellites as the "SpaceX Orbital Data Center system" — about 90 times the more than 11,100 Starlink satellites it says it has in low Earth orbit. The filing came back into focus on November 4, when Elon Musk posted that "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now". The FCC's Space Bureau accepted the application for filing on February 4 and set comments due on March 6; the notice says the system will operate at altitudes from 500 to 2,000 kilometres, in 30-degree and sun-synchronous orbits, and will "primarily rely on optical intersatellite-links" that may connect with Starlink satellites. SpaceX's IPO prospectus says it expects to begin deploying orbital AI compute satellites "as early as 2028", and sets a goal of 100 gigawatts of compute to orbit a year. The company's 10-Q for the quarter to September 30 reports 1.7 gigawatts of nameplate compute on the ground, with three Starship launches in nine months. The filing even quotes SpaceX calling the system the "first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that can harness the Sun's full power". A million satellites is an application, not a plan anyone expects to be built in full — but the direction is unmistakable, and it is the same direction as Google's Project Suncatcher, which returned its first AI response from a data-centre-class TPU in orbit on October 30.
8. SpaceX and Nvidia StarMind AI1: first orbital data centre launch targeted for Q3 2027 PLANNED
SpaceX and Nvidia are building StarMind AI1, the first AI data centre designed to run in orbit, and Elon Musk said on Friday, November 6, at the Baron Investment Conference that the first launch could come in the third quarter of 2027 — adding, in his own words, "I'm just guessing here." The pitch is simple: sunlight in space never stops, so an orbital data centre dodges the power limits strangling data centres on the ground. Each StarMind AI1 satellite would carry a space-optimised Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 rack — 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs. The partnership was announced in August 2026, and the news this week is the 2027 date being reaffirmed. The scepticism is real and worth stating plainly: in a vacuum, heat can only escape by radiation, radiation degrades chips, and one analysis puts orbital compute at three to five times the cost of the same compute on the ground. SpaceX's own IPO filing concedes it has no operating history in orbital AI, the conditions are untested, and a satellite cannot be repaired or upgraded once launched. As of November 2026, no regulatory approvals and no customer contracts for the orbital system have been confirmed. The idea is alive, funded and dated — but it is still a bet, and Musk's own qualifier says so.
🚀 Amazon Leo's launch week
Amazon Leo has not launched a satellite since early July, and the whole constellation has been waiting on rockets. This week the wait ends — or at least, the countdown starts. The first Vulcan flight is days away, the factory is now turning out satellites at industrial speed, and the company still promises initial service before the end of the year.
9. Amazon Leo LV-01: 40 satellites on Vulcan's return to flight, November 13 SCHEDULED
Amazon will launch 40 Leo satellites on November 13 aboard United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, in the mission designated Leo Vulcan 1, or LV-01, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Amazon announced the date on November 9. It is the largest Leo payload yet, and the first of 38 Vulcan launches Amazon has on contract with ULA — and a second Vulcan is already being readied to fly within weeks of the first. The flight is also Vulcan's return after nine months on the ground, following nozzle failures in its solid rocket boosters that hit two of its four earlier flights; the November 13 mission will fly the improved design with a full complement of six solid boosters, the most Vulcan has ever flown. Amazon Leo, previously known as Project Kuiper, has 396 satellites in orbit and has not put any into space since early July. Its FCC licence requires all 3,232 satellites to be launched by July 2029. Next up after LV-01 is Ariane 6: Leo Europe 4 is scheduled to carry 36 satellites from Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than November 23. "Amazon Leo remains on track to get initial service this year," chief executive Andy Jassy told analysts on October 29 — and the network now vies with Starlink, which had 13.6 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter.
10. Amazon Leo builds its 1,000th satellite; production now 27 a week IN PROGRESS
At its factory in Kirkland, Washington, Amazon recently completed its 1,000th Leo satellite. Production that once took six months to yield 27 satellites now turns out 27 a week, according to Rajeev Badyal, the executive running the programme, and the company says it has hundreds of flight-ready units. That matters because the launch bottleneck is finally clearing: with Vulcan returning, Ariane 6 flying and Blue Origin's New Glenn in the mix — though New Glenn exploded during a static-fire test in May 2026, a failure traced to a valve in its BE-4 engine, and the 48 Leo satellites awaiting that launch escaped the fireball while the schedule did not — the factory can now feed the rockets faster than the rockets can fly. The constellation's first generation calls for 3,232 satellites, and as of early October Amazon had 396 in orbit — enough, the company says, to begin initial commercial service, which it still promises before the end of 2026. A second-generation constellation has already been filed with the FCC. The hard deadline remains July 30, 2029, when the full first-generation constellation must be in orbit; the interim milestone of half the constellation, 1,616 satellites, was due by July 30, 2026 and was not met, which is why the launch cadence from here is the number that matters most.
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📻 Spectrum, the new battleground
Every satellite-to-phone plan and every orbital data centre filing comes down to the same scarce resource: radio spectrum. This week the three big geostationary operators told the FCC what it will cost to give up a slice of C-band, T-Mobile's satellite service settled at a ten-dollar price point open to rival customers, and reports surfaced that SpaceX wants to buy its way into the terrestrial network itself.
11. SES, Eutelsat and Telesat file Upper C-band plans worth about 4.3 billion dollars FILED
SES, Eutelsat and Telesat, the three satellite operators the Federal Communications Commission has made responsible for clearing the Upper C-band in the contiguous United States, filed their transition plans between November 3 and 5, 2026. Each plan says what the operator will build, move and spend to get its satellite services out of 4.0 to 4.16 GHz before the band is auctioned for terrestrial wireless use. The operators put the total cost at about 4.3 billion dollars, and SES accounts for about 84 percent of it: SES estimates its programme at 3.65 billion dollars, Eutelsat at about 685 million dollars, and Telesat at likely less than the roughly 800,000 dollars it was reimbursed in 2020. SES plans seven new geostationary satellites plus a terrestrial packet recovery network to back up Ku-band downlinks in heavy rain; Eutelsat plans one new Ku-band satellite and is moving an existing satellite across the Atlantic to hold the orbital slot; Telesat repacks one satellite inside the remaining band and has so far identified three earth station antennas for filters. Comments on the plans are due at the FCC on November 30, and the operators must finish by December 30, 2030 in the largest markets and June 30, 2031 elsewhere. For satellite TV viewers the C-band story is familiar ground — it is the same band that carried television for decades — and this filing is the paperwork for its final exit from satellite use in the United States.
12. T-Mobile T-Satellite at 10 dollars a month, open to AT&T and Verizon customers LIVE
In the United States, the way to use Starlink satellites on a phone today is T-Mobile's T-Satellite, which a phone shows as "T-Mobile SpaceX" or "T-Sat+Starlink" when it connects. As of November 8, T-Mobile's page said T-Satellite is "Available on qualifying T-Mix plans or 10 dollars a month," and that "You don't even have to be a T-Mobile member to get it." On a T-Mobile plan it is included with Experience Beyond and Better Value plans; on T-Mix Standard, More or Loaded it can use the plan's Picks, one or two depending on the page; otherwise it is 10 dollars a month per line. Added to another carrier's line, such as AT&T or Verizon, T-Satellite runs on a separate digital SIM (eSIM) line beside the main carrier, at 10 dollars a month per line, with an unlocked, satellite-optimised phone that has eSIM. The service covers texts, picture and audio messages, location sharing, select apps, WhatsApp voice chat and text to 911. Starlink says its satellite-to-phone network, Starlink Mobile, is already "powering data, voice, video and messaging across six continents" through partner phone companies, and SpaceX is buying radio spectrum "to advance our Starlink Mobile strategy" — the 800 MHz deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. Boost Mobile's subscribers would get access through future long-term commercial agreements under EchoStar's spectrum sale to SpaceX, with the last step of that sale targeted for November 30, 2027. What does not exist yet: a Starlink phone plan of its own, with a price or a launch date.
13. SpaceX reportedly seeks access to about 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile UNCONFIRMED
Fox News and Northeast Times report that SpaceX is seeking access to roughly 80,000 US cell sites as it works toward a Starlink mobile network — a scale that would require coordination with existing tower infrastructure. SpaceX has not publicly confirmed the figure or the plan, and no regulatory filing is cited in the available reporting. The same coverage frames Starlink as a potential future cellphone carrier competing with T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T; that framing is outlet commentary, not a sourced company statement. The timeline behind it: on September 10, 2026, SpaceX's Starlink mobile service push put shares of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile under pressure, and T-Mobile publicly attacked what it called Starlink's mobile "threat", while its chief financial officer said he is "not worried" about Elon Musk's cellular ambitions. Roth Capital, as summarised by Stocktwits, said the 80,000-site push could benefit AST SpaceMobile, Ericsson, Nokia and NextNav, while Seeking Alpha describes it as an opportunity for American Tower. A third-party estimate cited by Beinsure puts a rival mobile network at another 130 billion dollars — a figure not confirmed by SpaceX. Until SpaceX or Tesla publishes an official statement, the 80,000-site figure, the 130 billion dollar cost estimate and the reported comments should be treated as unconfirmed third-party reporting. For current Starlink subscribers nothing changes: no setting in a Tesla or Starlink account enables a satellite phone option today.
🇨🇦 Canada, Telesat and the consolidation wave
Canada is now the centre of the satellite sovereignty story. Ottawa has signed a multi-billion-dollar contract with Telesat, Canada and the European Union are deepening cooperation on secure space communications, and at the same time Telesat's debt clock is ticking toward December 6. Meanwhile the industry keeps consolidating: Globalstar is asking regulators to look hard at the deal that would put its rival Iridium under Rocket Lab's roof.
14. Canada signs 2.3 billion Canadian dollar Telesat Lightspeed contract SIGNED
The Canadian government has signed a 2.3 billion Canadian dollar (about 1.4 billion euro) contract with national satellite operator Telesat to expand its Lightspeed low Earth orbit satellite constellation. Lightspeed was originally developed as a commercial competitor to Starlink and OneWeb, and the contract makes it a national project as much as a commercial one. On October 30 it was announced that Canada and the European Union would expand cooperation on satellite activity and secure communications, and at a summit in Montreal, Canadian and EU leaders announced plans to negotiate Canadian access to Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system, and explore cooperation on IRIS2, the EU's planned 330-satellite secure communications network. Canadian space company MDA Space secured an agreement worth more than 100 million Canadian dollars to help build Europe's alternative to Starlink, supplying advanced antennas and controllers for the first 66 IRIS2 satellites, scheduled to launch in 2029. The European Commission has moved toward awarding manufacturing contracts and increasing funding for its sovereign satellite communications network, and Airbus Defence and Space has already signed contracts in Toulouse, with Eutelsat, to manufacture the first 66 LEO satellites for military functionality. The picture is a Western alternative to Starlink being assembled in pieces — Canadian money, European satellites, shared navigation — and it is moving faster than the headlines suggest.
15. Telesat faces 2.2 billion dollar debt deadline on December 6 WATCH
Canada is backing Telesat's effort to challenge Starlink, but a debt dispute with Wall Street creditors threatens the company's Lightspeed satellite plan. Telesat plans to deploy 225 low Earth orbit satellites for global high-speed internet and secure communications, but depends on SpaceX rockets to launch them. Telesat has 3.1 billion Canadian dollars in debt approaching maturity, equivalent to about 2.2 billion dollars, as its revenue declines. Creditors allege the company transferred 62 percent of the project's equity out of a restricted asset structure in September 2025 to benefit shareholders at lenders' expense; Telesat disputes the claims and says it will defend itself against lawsuits filed in New York and Canada. About 2.3 billion Canadian dollars of debt is due December 6, with another 600 million Canadian dollars due next year. An analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets said the dispute could continue until the December 6 deadline and that Telesat could default. Canada has committed billions of Canadian dollars in financing and defence contracts to Lightspeed, including a 15-year contract worth 2.3 billion Canadian dollars awarded in August. Telesat's existing fleet numbers about 14 to 15 older geostationary satellites; Lightspeed is not expected to enter service until early 2028. The December 6 deadline is now less than a month away, and it is the single most watched date in the satellite industry after the November 13 launches.
16. Globalstar asks FCC to scrutinise Rocket Lab's 8 billion dollar Iridium deal FILED
Satellite communications operator Globalstar has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to review its supplier relationship with Rocket Lab as part of the regulatory evaluation of Rocket Lab's pending 8 billion dollar acquisition of Iridium Communications. In its regulatory filing, Globalstar urged federal regulators to examine potential conflicts of interest arising from Rocket Lab serving as its primary spacecraft bus manufacturer while concurrently owning and operating a direct commercial rival. Under prime contractor MDA Space, Globalstar subcontracted Rocket Lab to manufacture 17 satellite platforms to replenish its constellation and maintain continuous mobile messaging services, including Apple's emergency satellite features. The petition follows significant consolidation across the mobile satellite services sector: Globalstar filed the request exactly one week after the FCC approved Amazon's acquisition of Globalstar in an 11.5 billion dollar transaction that integrates Globalstar's licensed mobile spectrum into the Amazon Leo direct-to-device ecosystem. Concurrently, Rocket Lab has moved toward closing its purchase of Iridium following shareholder approval in late September, scaling vertical integration via an 8 billion dollar acquisition that brings approximately 80 operational low Earth orbit cross-linked satellites under its corporate umbrella. Rocket Lab and Iridium have requested expedited FCC approval, maintaining that historical supplier agreements will be honoured and that internal manufacturing efficiencies will expand competitive market capacity. The FCC is expected to conclude interagency review proceedings before the transaction targets financial closing in early 2027.
🏭 Vendors: AI-RAN goes to market
AI in the radio network is now a procurement story, not a research story. Nokia's AI-RAN trial in London produced its headline number on a chip most people had never heard of, the market has consolidated into five vendors that control almost everything, and the United Kingdom's newest operator is spending billions on a core network built for AI from the start.
17. Nokia VMO2 AI-RAN trial hits 20 percent gain — on Marvell silicon, not Nvidia TRIAL
Nokia's AI-RAN trials with Virgin Media O2 produced a 20 percent improvement in spectral efficiency at the trial site in Paddington, London — meaning the site could carry more data on the same spectrum — but the interesting detail is what ran the software. After Nvidia invested 1 billion dollars in Nokia, the assumption was that Nvidia's GPUs would power the AI-RAN work. The Paddington site, it turns out, continued to rely on older custom silicon: a Layer 1 chip from Marvell Technology codenamed ABIP by Nokia. Light Reading, which had originally reported a GPU running Nokia's AI-RAN software at the site, withdrew its original story after Nokia supplied the new details. Nvidia was also curiously absent from VMO2's official statement on the trials, and did not refer to VMO2 in its own list of AI activities with telcos after its GTC event in Berlin — while BT's AI-RAN trials with Nokia, announced around the same time, did feature Nvidia in the headline. Under the current strategy, ABIP is the very last custom silicon product Nokia plans to develop; its successor, ABIG, is based on Nvidia's technology. Rival Ericsson says it has already introduced an AI successor to link adaptation, a standard RAN algorithm, in about 60,000 commercially deployed base stations built with its custom silicon, improving spectral efficiency by roughly 10 percent. The lesson for operators is that AI-RAN is not one chip or one vendor: it is a software layer that will run on whatever silicon is already in the tower, and the vendors that can prove gains on installed hardware will win the next round of contracts.
18. Dell'Oro: top five vendors control 96 percent of the RAN market REPORTED
Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung controlled 96 percent of the global radio access network equipment market in the first half of 2026, according to Dell'Oro Group's 2026 RAN market assessment, as operators continued investing in 5G coverage, network modernisation, cloud-native core infrastructure and AI-powered networks. Huawei ranked first, followed by Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung. The concentration matters because AI-RAN is a software business layered on top of a hardware market that is already locked up: the five vendors own the installed base, and the AI features will be sold as upgrades to the networks they already supply. Ericsson's growth strategy focuses on 5G radio modernisation, cloud-native core networks, 5G Standalone and differentiated connectivity, and it reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of 59.5 billion Swedish kronor, up 6 percent year over year, with organic sales growth of 7 percent. Samsung is expanding its AI-RAN and private 5G business, while ZTE is combining telecom infrastructure with AI computing. The RAN market itself is flat — spending fell from 45 billion dollars in 2022 to 35 billion dollars in 2024, according to Light Reading — which is why every vendor is now selling AI as the reason to spend again.
19. VodafoneThree picks Ericsson for 12.5 billion kronor core modernisation SIGNED
VodafoneThree has entered an eight-year partnership with Ericsson, including a 12.5 billion Swedish kronor agreement covering nationwide core-network modernisation. The project involves a cloud-native 5G Core designed to support 9 terabits per second of capacity. The core is the part of the network that routes traffic, manages subscribers and enforces policy, and a cloud-native core is the foundation for the AI-driven automation both vendors are selling, from self-optimising radio applications to autonomous fault handling. The deal is part of a wider procurement wave: Virgin Media O2 allocated 700 million pounds to its 2026 mobile transformation programme, selecting Ericsson and Nokia for multi-year radio access network modernisation, with Nokia's deployment including AirScale Massive MIMO radios and next-generation baseband equipment. In Italy, Wind Tre selected Ericsson for a seven-year core-network modernisation agreement covering 2026 to 2032, including Ericsson's dual-mode 5G Core. And the hardware is already landing: NTT DOCOMO commercially deployed Ericsson's RAN Processor 6672 in July 2026, and Vodafone Egypt commercially deployed the same processor in September 2026, incorporating AI capabilities into its radio network infrastructure. Operators are buying on total cost of ownership, energy efficiency and long-term availability as much as on capacity — and the AI features are now part of the base specification, not an optional extra.
📊 The 2026 scoreboard
Step back from the day's announcements and the year looks like this: one company owns the sky, one is racing to catch up, and the European operators are quietly making money from connectivity while television fades.
20. 2026 satellite report: Starlink past 11,000 satellites, Eutelsat LEO revenue up 69.5 percent REPORTED
A global satellite communications report with an evidence cutoff of November 5, 2026 puts the year's shape in numbers. Starlink reported more than 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit in October. Amazon Leo reported nearly 400 launched, while its October results still targeted initial service later in 2026. Eutelsat generated 297 million euros of LEO revenue in the year ended June 2026, up 69.5 percent like-for-like, while its video revenue fell 13.1 percent like-for-like and connectivity increased 16.4 percent — the clearest single picture of the industry's shift from television to data. Eutelsat OneWeb has more than 600 LEO spacecraft, with a renewal programme ordered and launches planned for 2027 and 2028. Iridium runs its established 66 active satellite network with its NTN Direct service, and the Rocket Lab transaction is still pending. Globalstar has its existing ecosystem and an authorised C-3 renewal, with the Amazon transaction and C-3 rollout still ahead. Telesat Lightspeed is a planned 225-spacecraft system with commercial start expected around the first quarter of 2028. The report's method is worth noting: announced plans and design specifications are distinguished from operating service, and historical industry totals retain their measurement year. On that honest basis, 2026 is the year the satellite industry stopped being a television business with a data sideline and became a data business that still carries some television.
📺 What it means for satellite TV viewers
Almost nothing in today's list changes a dish installation directly — and that is itself the news. The satellite industry's centre of gravity keeps shifting from television distribution toward phone connectivity, data links and AI workloads in orbit: Eutelsat's video revenue is falling while its connectivity revenue rises, SES is booking satellites for defence and aviation, and the Upper C-band — the band that carried television for decades — is being cleared for terrestrial wireless in the United States. For dish viewers, the practical effects are indirect but real. More capacity in orbit — OneWeb's renewal, Amazon Leo's launch cadence resuming, Starlink past 11,000 satellites — keeps transponder supply healthy and backhaul costs under pressure. Direct-to-device service will not replace a dish for watching television, and the carrier war over it is about phone subscribers, not channels. BISS keys, channel lists and receiver firmware are unaffected by every item today. The honest takeaway for this blog's readers: watch the phone-to-satellite race, because that is where the money, the spectrum and the satellites are going — and the television side of the industry will keep following that money. What to watch next: Amazon Leo's LV-01 launch and the Adaspace Hong Kong listing, both on November 13, the AST class action lead plaintiff deadline the same day, the FCC's Upper C-band comment deadline on November 30, and Telesat's December 6 debt deadline.
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❓ FAQ — AI in satellite & telecom, November 10, 2026
What did AST SpaceMobile announce in its Q3 earnings call?
On its November 9 earnings call, AST SpaceMobile said it is working with Google, Meta and other technology companies on satellite-based AI inference, with applications beyond smartphones to cars, drones, machines and smaller devices. The company maintained its 2026 revenue forecast of 150 million to 200 million dollars and said revenue could exceed 1 billion dollars in the 12 months after commercial service launch. It targets intermittent nationwide service activation by the end of 2026 through partners in the United States, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, followed by consumer beta trials in early 2027.
When will Amazon Leo's first Vulcan launch fly?
Leo Vulcan 1, or LV-01, is targeted for November 13, 2026, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, carrying 40 Leo satellites — the largest batch Amazon has sent up in one go. It is the first of 38 Vulcan launches Amazon has on contract with ULA, and the flight is also Vulcan's return after nine months on the ground. The next launch, Leo Europe 4 on Ariane 6 with 36 satellites, is scheduled for no earlier than November 23 from Kourou, French Guiana.
What is StarMind AI1?
StarMind AI1 is the first AI data centre designed to run in orbit, built by SpaceX and Nvidia. Each satellite would carry a space-optimised Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 rack — 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs — powered by sunlight that never stops. Elon Musk said on November 6 at the Baron Investment Conference that the first launch could come in the third quarter of 2027, adding "I'm just guessing here." The partnership was announced in August 2026, and as of November 2026 no regulatory approvals or customer contracts have been confirmed.
Why are SES, Eutelsat and Telesat clearing the Upper C-band?
The FCC has made the three operators responsible for clearing 4.0 to 4.16 GHz in the contiguous United States before the band is auctioned for terrestrial wireless use. Their transition plans, filed between November 3 and 5, put the total cost at about 4.3 billion dollars, with SES accounting for about 84 percent and planning seven new geostationary satellites. Comments on the plans are due at the FCC on November 30, and the operators must finish by December 30, 2030 in the largest markets.
Will Telesat default on December 6?
Nobody knows yet. About 2.3 billion Canadian dollars comes due on December 6, creditors allege the company moved 62 percent of the Lightspeed project's equity out of a restricted asset structure in September 2025, and lawsuits are running in New York and Canada. Telesat disputes the claims and says it will defend itself. Canada has committed billions in financing and defence contracts to Lightspeed, including a 15-year contract worth 2.3 billion Canadian dollars awarded in August, and Desjardins initiated coverage on November 4 with a Buy rating — but an analyst at ATB Cormark has said default is possible, and the deadline is less than a month away.
What is AI-RAN and why does the Marvell chip matter?
AI-RAN means running artificial intelligence workloads directly on the radio access network hardware that carries phone calls and mobile data, so the same equipment can optimise the network and run AI applications. Nokia's VMO2 trial in London improved spectral efficiency by 20 percent — but the software ran on a Marvell ABIP custom silicon chip, not an Nvidia GPU, even after Nvidia invested 1 billion dollars in Nokia. It matters because it shows AI-RAN is a software layer that can run on the silicon already in the towers, and vendors that prove gains on installed hardware have an advantage over vendors selling new chips.
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🔗 Sources (20)
- AST SpaceMobile Q3: 1 billion dollar revenue opportunity, AI partnerships — stocktwits.com
- Starlink vs AST SpaceMobile: coverage, costs and cash — valueslate.com
- Vodacom targets satellite-to-phone service in South Africa next year — techcentral.co.za
- AST SpaceMobile class action: lead plaintiff deadline November 13, 2026 — minnesotabusinessreporter.com
- Adaspace put AI on satellites. Now it wants to sell computing time — jumpstartmag.com
- QMIC signs MoU with Es'hailSat to advance AI-driven operational intelligence — satelliteevolution.com
- SpaceX seeks 1M orbital data center satellites, 90x Starlink — fourweekmba.com
- Musk says AI data centers reach orbit in 2027 — simpleaiexplain.com
- Amazon readies a second Vulcan as its first Leo flight eyes Nov. 13 liftoff — tradingkey.com
- Amazon's space internet is ready. The rockets aren't — alphabriefing.com
- SES, Eutelsat, Telesat Upper C-band plans — satelliteinsights.com
- Starlink phone service 2026: cost, phones, what works — trendytechtribe.com
- Report: SpaceX seeks 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile — tesery.com
- World turning against SpaceX and Starlink — advanced-television.com
- Canada backs Starlink rival Telesat, but 2 billion dollar debt dispute threatens Lightspeed — binance.com
- Globalstar petitions FCC to scrutinize Rocket Lab supplier conflict over 8 billion dollar Iridium deal — satnews.com
- Nokia quickie with Marvell at VMO2 shows AI-RAN needs no Nvidia — lightreading.com
- Ericsson vs Nokia vs Huawei vs Samsung vs ZTE: 5G equipment market share 2026 — telecomlead.com
- Telecom network procurement in 2026 — telecomlead.com
- Satellite Communications in 2026: Global Report — ts2.space
Disclaimer: This article summarises public announcements, company reports and trade-press coverage dated November 10, 2026. Figures, forecasts and timelines are as reported by the cited sources and may change; always check the source link for the latest status before acting on any item.
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