Quick answer: November 8, 2026 is the day the satellite-to-phone race turned into a carrier war: SpaceX is reported to be in talks to buy Boost Mobile, Starlink Mobile already counts about 10 million monthly users, and the three big United States carriers have formed their own satellite joint venture rather than depend on SpaceX. At the same time, AST SpaceMobile is answering launch failures by building its own rocket, Amazon Leo returns to flight on November 13, SES has demonstrated a laser link from space to ground, and Google has run an AI model on a chip in orbit. 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 | SpaceX reported in talks to buy Boost Mobile for Starlink Mobile | Reported |
| 2 | Starlink Mobile: about 10 million monthly users across 32 countries | Reported |
| 3 | T-Mobile CEO rules out Starlink Mobile running on its network | Stated |
| 4 | Starlink Zimbabwe: subscriptions jump from 3,800 to 86,500 in 18 months | Measured |
| 5 | AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon form their own satellite joint venture | Formed |
| 6 | AST SpaceMobile to build its own reusable Blacklift rocket with Firefly | Announced |
| 7 | AST commercial service pushed to 2027 after BlueBird 7 loss | Revised |
| 8 | AST to support STR on United States Space Force sensing contract | Contract awarded |
| 9 | Chile grants AST SpaceMobile a 30-year nationwide satellite concession | Granted |
| 10 | Amazon Leo returns to flight: 40 satellites on Vulcan, November 13 | Scheduled |
| 11 | SES demonstrates bidirectional optical link with meoSphere Pathfinder 1 | Demonstrated |
| 12 | SES airline LEO service passes 300 aircraft in Asia-Pacific | Expanding |
| 13 | Telesat faces December 6 debt deadline with no Lightspeed satellites in orbit | At risk |
| 14 | Eutelsat LEO revenue jumps 69.5 percent as video keeps falling | Reported |
| 15 | Google runs AI on a TPU in orbit — but warns space data centres cost up to 100 times more | Demonstrated |
| 16 | Nokia VMO2 AI-RAN trial gains 20 percent — on Marvell silicon, not Nvidia | Trial |
| 17 | Ericsson AI link adaptation now live in about 60,000 base stations | Deployed |
| 18 | VodafoneThree signs eight-year Ericsson core deal worth 12.5 billion Swedish kronor | Contract signed |
| 19 | Virgin Media O2 puts 700 million pounds into mobile transformation with Ericsson and Nokia | Announced |
| 20 | MTN and ZTE report 13.5 percent energy savings from AI trial | Trial result |
📱 Carrier wars: Starlink Mobile goes head-to-head
The satellite-to-phone story has turned into a fight over who owns the customer. SpaceX is reported to be shopping for a mobile carrier to buy, its satellite phone service already counts millions of users, and the three big United States carriers have answered by forming a satellite venture of their own — while the incumbent carriers publicly dismiss the satellite threat even as they prepare for it.
1. SpaceX reported in talks to buy Boost Mobile for Starlink Mobile REPORTED
SpaceX is reported to be in talks to buy Boost Mobile, according to The Verge, in a move that would give Starlink Mobile a ready-made retail brand and subscriber base as it tries to become a full mobile carrier competing with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The report, published on November 8, follows the November 4 agreement under which Qualcomm will supply cellular technology for tens of thousands of Starlink Mobile 5G cell sites from 2027. Buying Boost Mobile would hand SpaceX something satellites cannot provide on their own: stores, billing systems, a customer-service operation and millions of existing subscribers. No deal has been signed and no price has been reported, so this remains a reported negotiation rather than an acquisition — but it fits the pattern of SpaceX's week: the company is assembling every piece of a conventional carrier, from spectrum to towers to a retail brand.
2. Starlink Mobile: about 10 million monthly users across 32 countries REPORTED
Starlink Mobile, renamed from direct-to-cell in March 2026, already has about 10 million monthly users through 35 operator partners in 32 countries, according to an analysis published on November 8, and SpaceX expects that figure to reach 25 million by the end of 2026. The wider constellation stands at 13,096 Starlink satellites launched, with 11,207 still in orbit and 11,193 working. The same analysis notes that SpaceX agreed to buy EchoStar spectrum for about 17 billion dollars, approved in the United States in May 2026, to expand direct-to-phone service, and that next-generation satellites offering broadband to standard phones are due to launch from mid-2027. The user numbers come from an industry analysis citing SpaceX's May 2026 Form S-1 filing and trade-press reporting rather than a fresh SpaceX release, so treat them as reported rather than independently audited — but the direction is clear: satellite-to-phone is already a service with millions of users, not a laboratory experiment.
3. T-Mobile CEO rules out Starlink Mobile running on its network STATED
T-Mobile chief executive Srini Gopalan has publicly ruled out letting Starlink Mobile run on T-Mobile's network as a virtual operator, describing satellite as an inferior substitute for its network on the company's third-quarter 2026 earnings call in late October. T-Mobile already offers Starlink-powered direct-to-device service as T-Satellite, aimed at filling dead zones on remote highways, in national parks, mountains and open water — but Gopalan drew a line at handing SpaceX wholesale access to T-Mobile's network. Verizon's chief executive has also ruled out such a deal. The public dismissal sits awkwardly beside the numbers: Ookla's November testing showed T-Mobile's no-signal share on United States national routes fell from 2.01 percent to 0.50 percent after the Starlink service began. The carriers need the satellite coverage and fear the satellite competition at the same time, and Gopalan's words are the clearest statement yet of that tension.
4. Starlink Zimbabwe: subscriptions jump from 3,800 to 86,500 in 18 months MEASURED
In Zimbabwe, Starlink subscriptions rose from about 3,800 to 86,500 in 18 months, drawing level with all fibre subscriptions combined, according to regulator data cited in an analysis published on November 8. Starlink was approved in Zimbabwe in May 2024 and licensed and launched in September 2024, and the effect on the local market was immediate: fibre prices fell from over 150 dollars a month to about 90 dollars a month. Worldwide, Starlink roughly doubles its subscribers every year, reaching 8.9 million at the end of 2025 and 10.3 million by March 2026. Zimbabwe is the clearest single-country case study of what satellite broadband does to a market where terrestrial networks are thin: the satellite does not just add connections, it forces the incumbents to cut prices. It is also a warning for regulators elsewhere that a satellite entrant can reshape a national broadband market in under two years.
5. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon form their own satellite joint venture FORMED
In October 2026, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon formed their own satellite joint venture rather than depend on a single provider, according to the same November 8 analysis. The three carriers, who compete fiercely on the ground, have decided to cooperate in space — a recognition that none of them wants its satellite future controlled by SpaceX alone. The venture follows a year in which each carrier struck its own satellite deals: T-Mobile with SpaceX, AT&T with AST SpaceMobile, and Verizon with its own partners. A joint venture lets them share the cost of satellite capacity and negotiate as a bloc, but the details — ownership split, satellite partner, launch timeline and which services it will offer — have not been published. For now it is a strategic signal more than a service: the carriers have decided the satellite layer of mobile is too important to rent from a rival.
🚀 AST bets on its own rocket
AST SpaceMobile spent 2026 learning how much a satellite company depends on other people's rockets. After losing a satellite to a launch failure and watching its commercial start slip a year, the company has answered with the most ambitious move in its history: build its own reusable rocket, while collecting government contracts and a 30-year concession abroad.
6. AST SpaceMobile to build its own reusable Blacklift rocket with Firefly ANNOUNCED
AST SpaceMobile announced on November 6 that it will build its own reusable 20-ton rocket, named Blacklift, to deploy its BlueBird satellites into low Earth orbit, using Miranda and Vira engines from Firefly Aerospace under a deal worth more than 1.3 billion dollars. The rocket is designed to carry up to five BlueBird satellites on a single flight, with first use targeted for late 2028, and AST will host an unveiling event in New York City on Thursday, November 12. The agreement covers engines for the first three Blacklift rockets, engineering services over three years, and a perpetual licence to manufacture the Miranda and vacuum-variant Vira engines. BlueBird satellites are already in production through BlueBird 51 at the company's Midland, Texas, facility. AST stressed that Blacklift supplements rather than replaces its current launch plan, with agreements covering more than 100 BlueBird satellites to be deployed in 2027 and 2028 through existing providers. The rocket is a long-term bet, not a near-term fix — but it is the structural answer to the launch problems that cost the company a year.
7. AST commercial service pushed to 2027 after BlueBird 7 loss REVISED
The Blacklift announcement answers a question AST's investors have been asking since July, when the company raised 1 billion dollars in convertible debt and cited a need to reduce its dependence on third-party launch providers. In April 2026, AST's BlueBird 7 satellite was lost when Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket suffered an upper-stage engine anomaly during its first commercial mission for the company, and the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the vehicle. Then, on May 28, Blue Origin suffered an engine explosion during a test fire, pushing New Glenn's return to service into late 2026 at the earliest. AST had planned to send 45 BlueBird satellites to orbit on New Glenn this year, and the cascading failures forced it to revise its satellite target from between 45 and 60 by the end of 2026 down to roughly 45 in orbit by early 2027 — a gap analysts estimated would require at least six additional SpaceX Falcon 9 launches. Those setbacks pushed the start of AST's commercial satellite connectivity service from late 2026 to 2027. So far the company has launched 13 BlueBird satellites, including five first-generation spacecraft with smaller arrays, and its next-generation satellites carry phased arrays spanning almost 2,400 square feet — the largest commercial arrays operating in low Earth orbit.
8. AST to support STR on United States Space Force sensing contract CONTRACT AWARDED
On November 5, AST SpaceMobile announced that it will support STR, the prime contractor, on a United States Space Force contract for an additional technology-development phase focused on sensing capabilities that use its commercially developed space-based technologies. The work extends AST's relationship with the United States government beyond communications and into space-based sensing — using the same large phased-array satellites built for phone calls to detect and track objects from orbit. Government work of this kind is separate from recurring SpaceMobile service revenue, and the company frames it as part of an expanded addressable market beyond direct-to-device, including government radar, secure communications, internet-of-things, federal emergency services and AI edge computing. The contract adds a second revenue leg to a company whose commercial service has not yet started, and it shows how a civilian constellation can be repurposed for defence sensing without new hardware.
9. Chile grants AST SpaceMobile a 30-year nationwide satellite concession GRANTED
Chile has published a decree granting AST SpaceMobile Chile SpA a 30-year concession to provide mobile satellite services nationwide using its BlueBird constellation. The concession gives AST a three-decade licence to operate satellite-to-phone service across one of South America's longest and most geographically challenging countries, where the Andes, the Atacama desert and remote Pacific coastline leave large areas beyond the reach of terrestrial towers. A 30-year term is unusually long for a satellite concession and signals that Chile's regulator sees direct-to-device as permanent infrastructure rather than a trial. The grant also strengthens AST's hand in negotiations with Chilean mobile operators, who will need a satellite partner to close their own coverage gaps. No commercial launch date for Chile has been announced, and service still depends on the constellation reaching the roughly 45 satellites targeted for early 2027.
🛰️ Constellations: Leo launches and optical links
The constellation race is moving from announcements to flight hardware. Amazon Leo returns to the launch pad after four months grounded, SES has proven a laser link between space and ground, its airline business is scaling fast in Asia, and Telesat's state-backed challenger is running out of time on its debts.
10. Amazon Leo returns to flight: 40 satellites on Vulcan, November 13 SCHEDULED
Amazon Leo is preparing to launch 40 additional broadband satellites into low Earth orbit on November 13, aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — the largest single Leo payload to date and the first of 38 contracted Vulcan missions. The flight, named LV-01, is targeted for 12:54 p.m. Eastern time, pending range approval, and marks Vulcan's return to flight after the rocket was grounded in February 2026 when a solid rocket booster nozzle failed less than 30 seconds into a United States Space Force mission. Amazon has 396 Leo satellites in orbit and has not launched any new ones since early July. A second mission, LE-04, is targeted for no earlier than November 23, carrying 36 satellites aboard an Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket from French Guiana. If both go to plan, Amazon Leo will pass 470 satellites launched before the end of November. Chief executive Andy Jassy told analysts on October 29 that the network remains on track to begin initial service this year — but the launches are still targets, not flown missions, and the November 13 date depends on range approval, weather and technical readiness.
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11. SES demonstrates bidirectional optical link with meoSphere Pathfinder 1 DEMONSTRATED
SES has demonstrated a bidirectional optical communications link between ground and space through its meoSphere Pathfinder 1 mission, the company announced on November 4. During the demonstration, SES transmitted high-speed video messages from chief executive Adel Al-Saleh across the laser link, between the Cailabs optical ground station in Rennes, France, and an SES communications payload operating in orbit aboard the K2 Space Gravitas mission, using a Mynaric Condor optical communications terminal. Thales Alenia Space supported system assembly, integration, testing and flight operations, and SES designed, developed and operated the optical mission itself, including the automation software that enabled the demonstration. The milestone validates the optical data-transfer technology behind SES's planned next-generation meoSphere satellite network, targeted for operation by 2030 and designed to boost medium-Earth-orbit capacity for government and commercial customers. SES plans further flight testing to extend link duration, evaluate data transmission rates and benchmark pointing stability, with a series of MEO pathfinder missions over the next three years to test the satellite bus and payload components ahead of full-scale deployment.
12. SES airline LEO service passes 300 aircraft in Asia-Pacific EXPANDING
SES now has active installations on more than 300 connected aircraft operating across Asia-Pacific, and expects that figure to exceed 480 aircraft by January 2028, the company said on November 4 ahead of the APEX FTE EXPO in Singapore on November 18 and 19. SES says it remains the only in-flight connectivity provider offering LEO satellite connectivity in Southeast Asia, a region where reliable coverage is essential, and its regional airline customers now include Air Astana, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Royal Brunei and Thai Airways. The SES solution blends geostationary and low-Earth-orbit capacity so airlines can deliver consistent connectivity throughout a flight, even in congested airspace and while flying over countries with regulatory restrictions. The numbers show how quickly satellite broadband is becoming standard equipment on commercial aircraft — and how the multi-orbit model, rather than a single constellation, is winning the aviation market.
13. Telesat faces December 6 debt deadline with no Lightspeed satellites in orbit AT RISK
Prime Minister Mark Carney has put Ottawa-based Telesat at the centre of his push to cut Canada's reliance on Starlink, but the company is racing a December debt deadline with no Lightspeed satellites in orbit yet, according to a Financial Times report published on November 3. Roughly 2.3 billion Canadian dollars comes due on December 6, with another 600 million Canadian dollars owed next year, while money from Telesat's older fleet of about 14 to 15 satellites keeps shrinking as customers move to newer networks. Wall Street lenders including Silver Point Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management and Sound Point Capital Management put a fresh rescue plan on the table in October, and the lenders also want first claim on all of Telesat's ownership of Lightspeed if the company cannot pay. Lenders allege that in September 2025 Telesat moved 62 percent of its Lightspeed ownership out of reach of the assets backing their loans; Telesat disputes those claims and says it will defend itself in New York and Canadian courts. None of the 225 planned Lightspeed satellites are in orbit yet, the network is not expected to enter service until early 2028, and Telesat still plans to launch those satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets — so the plan to lean less on Elon Musk still depends on Musk's launchers. The dispute could run to the December 6 deadline, and Telesat could default.
💰 Money and orbit: the numbers behind the race
The financial results now tell the same story as the launch manifests: connectivity is where the money is, video is where it used to be, and the most futuristic idea in the industry — computers in orbit — has just produced its first result and its first cost warning in the same week.
14. Eutelsat LEO revenue jumps 69.5 percent as video keeps falling REPORTED
Eutelsat generated 297 million euros of LEO revenue in the year ended June 2026, up 69.5 percent like-for-like, according to a global satellite communications report published this week with an evidence cutoff of November 5. The same results show the other side of the shift: video revenue fell 13.1 percent like-for-like, while connectivity revenue increased 16.4 percent. The report's wider picture is one of convergence: SES had launched all 13 O3b mPOWER satellites with ten operating, Amazon Leo reported nearly 400 satellites launched with initial service still targeted later in 2026, and Telesat's Lightspeed remains a planned 225-spacecraft network with commercial start expected around the first quarter of 2028. SES's first-half 2026 constant-currency revenue growth was 72.4 percent on the reported group, but minus 5.0 percent like-for-like after accounting for the Intelsat combination completed in July 2025. The message for anyone who still thinks of satellite companies as television companies is now in the accounts: Eutelsat is a connectivity business first, and the video business that built it is shrinking every year.
15. Google runs AI on a TPU in orbit — but warns space data centres cost up to 100 times more DEMONSTRATED
Google has achieved a milestone with Project Suncatcher: for the first time, a data-centre-class TPU has run in orbit and returned a complete AI-generated response. A prototype satellite built with Planet, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission on October 1, received a prompt from a ground station and used an onboard Gemma 4 model to write a haiku about being in space, which was transmitted back as the satellite passed near Svalbard, Norway. Google announced the result on October 30. The satellite carries four Google TPUs but can only power one at a time for about 20 minutes, on about 1 kilowatt of power, because of supply and heat constraints. The long-term idea is AI data centres on solar-powered satellites, with a study in the journal Joule describing an 81-satellite cluster at about 650 kilometres altitude, needing inter-satellite links of up to 10 terabits per second — ground tests have reached 1.6 terabits per second bidirectional. But on November 2, Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of energy and power, said at a summit that space data centres could be up to 100 times more expensive than terrestrial facilities under current conditions. Google plans to launch two interlinked satellites in 2027 to test the optical links. The haiku is real; the business case is not yet.
🤖 AI-RAN goes live on real networks
This was the week AI in the radio network stopped being a conference topic and started showing measured results on commercial base stations. Nokia's headline trial turned out to run on a rival chipmaker's silicon, Ericsson's AI is already inside tens of thousands of live sites, and two of Europe's biggest operators signed multi-year, multi-billion deals to rebuild their networks around it.
16. Nokia VMO2 AI-RAN trial gains 20 percent — on Marvell silicon, not Nvidia TRIAL
Nokia's AI-RAN trial with Virgin Media O2 in Paddington, London, delivered a 20 percent improvement in spectral efficiency, meaning the site could carry more data without additional spectrum — but the trial did not run on Nvidia graphics processors as first reported. The high-capacity site continued to rely on older custom silicon to handle the new AI-RAN features, and Nokia later confirmed the trial leaned on a Layer 1 chip from Marvell Technology codenamed ABIP. Nvidia was curiously absent from VMO2's official statement, and did not refer to VMO2 in its own list of AI activities with telcos after its GTC event in Berlin. When BT announced its own AI-RAN trials with Nokia around the same time, Nvidia showed up in the headline. Nokia's successor chip, ABIG, is based on Nvidia technology, and the company's AI and cloud sales jumped 123 percent in the third quarter of 2026. The episode is a useful correction to the AI-RAN hype: the software gains are real and measurable, but the hardware underneath is still the custom silicon the industry has used for years, and the GPU era of the radio network has not actually arrived yet.
17. Ericsson AI link adaptation now live in about 60,000 base stations DEPLOYED
Ericsson says it has already introduced an AI successor to link adaptation, a standard radio algorithm, in about 60,000 commercially deployed base stations built with its custom silicon, improving spectral efficiency by roughly 10 percent. The point is strategic as much as technical: unlike Nokia's GPU-centred approach, Ericsson is shipping AI features that run on the silicon already installed in its customers' networks, without waiting for new hardware. Ericsson reported more than 15 AI-RAN deployments and trials in June 2026, and its Networks segment grew 9 percent organically in the third quarter of 2026 with an adjusted operating margin of 23.1 percent. The contrast between the two Nordic vendors is now the central debate in telecom equipment: Nokia is pivoting toward data-centre demand and GPU-based radios, while Ericsson is doubling down on its radio business and extracting AI gains from the installed base. Both approaches produced measurable results this week — the difference is that Ericsson's is already deployed at scale.
18. VodafoneThree signs eight-year Ericsson core deal worth 12.5 billion Swedish kronor CONTRACT 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, and it is one of the largest core-network deals signed in Europe this year. 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 shows where operator spending is going in 2026: not just more radios, but a rebuild of the network's brain so that AI can run the network rather than merely report on it.
19. Virgin Media O2 puts 700 million pounds into mobile transformation with Ericsson and Nokia ANNOUNCED
Virgin Media O2 has allocated 700 million pounds to its 2026 mobile transformation programme, selecting Ericsson and Nokia for multi-year radio access network modernisation. Nokia's deployment includes AirScale Massive MIMO radios and next-generation baseband equipment, and the same programme hosts the AI-RAN trial in Paddington described above. Splitting the work between the two Nordic vendors is a deliberate choice: VMO2 keeps both suppliers competing, avoids dependence on a single vendor's AI roadmap, and can compare their approaches — Nokia's GPU-leaning AI-RAN against Ericsson's silicon-based AI — on its own live network. The programme is one of the largest single-operator network investments in the United Kingdom this year, and it makes VMO2 the most watched test bed in Europe for whether AI in the radio network pays for itself.
20. MTN and ZTE report 13.5 percent energy savings from AI trial TRIAL RESULT
MTN South Africa and ZTE reported 13.5 percent energy savings per site during an AI-based EnergyTurbo trial in Cape Town, where artificial intelligence adjusted base-station power use to match real traffic instead of running radios at full power around the clock. The result matters because energy is one of the largest operating costs in a mobile network, and AI that trims it without degrading service pays for itself immediately. The same procurement round brought more evidence that AI efficiency is now a buying criterion, not a research project: KDDI Research and Nokia demonstrated technology capable of reducing base-station power consumption by approximately 40 percent while maintaining the same throughput, and Deutsche Telekom and Nokia reported 10 to 15 percent uplink throughput improvements in initial trials. Operators in 2026 are selecting vendors on total cost of ownership, energy efficiency and network capacity — and the AI features that save power and spectrum are becoming the deciding factor in billion-scale contracts.
📺 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 fell 13.1 percent while its connectivity revenue rose 16.4 percent, and Google is now testing whether the data centre itself can move to space. For dish viewers, the practical effects are indirect but real. More capacity in orbit — Amazon Leo's return to flight, Telesat's government-backed expansion if it survives December, OneWeb's renewal — 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.
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❓ FAQ — AI in satellite & telecom, November 8, 2026
Is SpaceX really going to buy Boost Mobile?
It is reported to be in talks, not a done deal. The Verge reported on November 8 that SpaceX is in discussions to buy Boost Mobile, which would give Starlink Mobile a retail brand, stores and an existing subscriber base. No price or signed agreement has been reported. The talks fit SpaceX's wider plan — Qualcomm equipment for tens of thousands of ground cell sites from 2027 and spectrum bought from EchoStar — but until a deal is announced, treat it as a negotiation.
How many people use Starlink Mobile today?
About 10 million monthly users through 35 operator partners in 32 countries, according to an analysis published on November 8, with SpaceX expecting 25 million by the end of 2026. The figures are reported rather than independently audited, but the constellation behind them is measurable: 13,096 Starlink satellites launched, 11,207 still in orbit. Next-generation satellites offering broadband directly to standard phones are due to launch from mid-2027.
Why did AST SpaceMobile decide to build its own rocket?
Because launch failures cost it a year. BlueBird 7 was lost in an April 2026 New Glenn failure, the rocket was grounded, and AST's commercial service slipped from late 2026 to 2027. Its answer, announced on November 6, is Blacklift — a reusable 20-ton rocket using Firefly engines, carrying up to five BlueBird satellites per flight, with first use targeted for late 2028. Existing launch agreements still cover more than 100 BlueBird satellites in 2027 and 2028.
When will Amazon Leo start service?
Chief executive Andy Jassy said on October 29 that Amazon Leo remains on track to begin initial service this year. The next step is the LV-01 launch on November 13, carrying 40 satellites on a Vulcan rocket, followed by 36 more on Ariane 6 on November 23. Amazon has 396 satellites in orbit and has not launched any since early July, so both dates are targets pending range approval, weather and technical readiness — not flown missions yet.
Can AI really run on a satellite?
Yes, in a limited test. Google's Project Suncatcher satellite ran its Gemma 4 model on a data-centre-class TPU in orbit and sent a haiku back to Earth, announced on October 30. But the satellite carries four TPUs and can only power one at a time for about 20 minutes, and Google's own energy chief says space data centres could be up to 100 times more expensive than terrestrial ones today. It is a proof of concept, not a product.
What is AI-RAN and why are operators trialling it now?
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 trial with Virgin Media O2 improved spectral efficiency by 20 percent, and Ericsson's AI link adaptation is already live in about 60,000 base stations with roughly 10 percent gains. Operators are trialling it now because spectrum and energy are expensive, and AI that squeezes more capacity from existing radios pays for itself.
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🔗 Sources (20)
- SpaceX plans Starlink Mobile as a major carrier — keeptrack.space
- From WhatsApp to Starlink: see the risk before the numbers do — linkedin.com
- Satellite-to-phone service explained: can it replace carriers? — cyberbrox.com
- AST SpaceMobile signs 1.3 billion dollar Firefly deal to build own rocket — techtimes.com
- AST SpaceMobile to build own 20-ton rocket using Firefly engines — investingnews.com
- ASTS stock: news, deployment and service — merlintrader.com
- Amazon Leo mission updates: launch dates set for next missions on Vulcan and Ariane 6 — aboutamazon.com
- Amazon Leo to launch 40 more broadband satellites Nov. 13 — broadbandbreakfast.com
- SES completes bidirectional optical link demonstration with meoSphere Pathfinder 1 — satnews.com
- SES reports optical communications demo on K2 Gravitas mission — satellitetoday.com
- SES claims optical communications milestone for meoSphere network — computerweekly.com
- SES showcases LEO satellite services in APAC — pax-intl.com
- Carney's Starlink escape plan could default before it launches: report — iphoneincanada.ca
- Satellite communications in 2026: global report — ts2.space
- Google's satellite data center test sends poem from orbit — techsota.com
- Google runs AI in space on its own chip — shashi.co
- Nokia quickie with Marvell at VMO2 shows AI-RAN needs no Nvidia — lightreading.com
- Telecom network procurement in 2026 — telecomlead.com
- Ericsson vs Nokia: AI sales +123% vs 7% growth — tech-insider.org
- NVIDIA, Nokia AI-RAN deal signs nearly 20 telcos — tech-insider.org
Disclaimer: This article summarises public announcements, company reports and trade-press coverage dated November 8, 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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