AST SpaceMobile, Inc. Class A Common Stock 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, I am also joined by Chairman and CEO, Abel Avellan, President, Scott Wisniewski, and CFO and Chief Legal Officer, Andrew Johnson. Let me refer you to slide 2 of the presentation, which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. During today's call, we may make certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements on this call. For more information about these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Risk Factors section of AST SpaceMobile's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2025, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other documents filed by AST SpaceMobile with the SEC from time to time.

Also, after our initial remarks, we will be starting our Q&A section with questions submitted in advance by our shareholders. For those of you who may be new to our company and mission, there are nearly 6 billion mobile phones today around the world, but many of us still experience gaps in coverage as we live, work, and travel. Additionally, there are billions of people without cellular broadband and who remain unconnected to the global economy. The markets we are pursuing at AST SpaceMobile are massive, and the problem we are solving is important and touches nearly all of us. In this backdrop, AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with everyday unmodified mobile phones, supported by our extensive IP and patent portfolio.

It is now my pleasure to pass this over to Chairman and CEO, Abel Avellan, who will go through our activities since our last public update.

Thank you, Max. Our execution in 2026 continued to reinforce what we have believed since we created AST SpaceMobile and invented the space-based cellular broadband market. Combining differentiated technology, deep partnership with leading mobile network operators, and a scale vertical integration position us to define the future of direct-to-device cellular broadband. Our space-based direct-to-device network will be the first of its kind to leverage low-band and mid-band spectrum with broadband speeds and native cellular application, combining a feature set and technology stack that put us in a category of one. From the beginning, we designed our network architecture alongside existing mobile network operators, not as a replacement of them. Rather than requiring operators to rebuild their infrastructure, our architecture and technology extends and complement their existing terrestrial network into space, allowing us to integrate efficiently while evolving alongside future 3GPP standards.

To put this concept simply, we're building the direct-to-device network of the future today in partnership with, not in competition with mobile network operators. This new layer of connectivity that we are creating is not just for addressing gaps in terrestrial network, but is to create a seamless connectivity experience wherever you live, work, and travel anywhere on the planet. The spectrum is another area where we believe we have significant competitive advantage. Through a combination of low-band spectrum contributed by our MNO partners and the spectrum we directly control, we are building access to the broadest spectrum portfolio in the industry, with satellite technology capable of tuning approximately 1,150 MHz for low-band and mid-band, and in the future, C-band tunable spectrum globally.

In the U.S. alone, we are on the path to approximately 100 MHz of the spectrum from a combination of MNO partner-provided spectrum and our own access to the spectrum, which will be a lead that is difficult for others to match. In particular, we're combining our over 3,900 patents and patent pending claims intellectual property, and a very large phased arrays with our spectrum access. These provide greater network capacity, better coverage, and significant flexibility as demands grow. We are confident that our comprehensive spectrum strategy is the winning one, giving us the tech needed to increase subscriber capacity and bring services to target markets with our partner MNOs. Direct-to-device cellular broadband is establishing itself as a new additional connectivity layer.

Our differentiated in-orbit technology and scaling direct-to-device cellular broadband network serves as a resilient and reliable source of an additional and new connectivity layer, serving commercial MNO partners and government agencies alike. Incremental to delivering direct-to-device cellular broadband connectivity, our total addressable market is rapidly expanding. We see several growth opportunity across government communications and non-communications opportunities, including radar, emergency response, Internet of Things, AI edge compute, and other advanced connectivity solutions. We see these markets as beneficiaries of our space-based direct-to-device network. We recently received an award pending government approvals and final agreements with longtime partner, Rakuten, regarding the selection for participation in the low earth orbit satellite infrastructure development project or JLEO in Japan, designing to address the Japanese and Asian markets with a total expected value of up to approximately $1 billion in non-dilutive, non-debt government capital.

This follows continued work with FirstNet emergency and first responder networks in the U.S., with partner AT&T, and recent announcements with multiple governments through partners like Vodafone and Rakuten. Our partner-first strategy positions us as the partner of choice for direct-to-device cellular broadband among mobile network operators. Our commercial ecosystem is growing, with over 60 MNO partners who cover over 3 billion subscribers globally, including key partners like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten, stc Group, Bell Canada, and Telus. We are on the cusp of commercial deployment as we prepare to scale our SpaceMobile service to everyday unmodified smartphones. With certain spacecraft in orbit and approximately 20,000 sq ft of combined aperture hardware and approximately 50 gateways globally that are in various stages of completion, installation, and planning, we prepare for beta service with key MNO partners in selected markets globally.

In the United States, we have deployed over 3,000 low-band cellular cells. We expect to deploy the remaining cells this year to light up the roughly 5,600 cellular cells that cover the United States. On network deployment, BlueBird 14 to 16 are undergoing final testing as their manufacturing assembly is nearly completed. The recent launch of BlueBird 11 to 13 demonstrated our ability to rapidly and repeatedly build, launch, and deploy the largest phased array in low-Earth orbit using advanced composite material for lighter and even bigger satellites. Our largest, newest, fully composite BlueBird satellites are operating as expected as we prepare them for their communication and non-communication missions for government and MNO applications. Our ASIC chip is now in full production, and we are expecting to nearly double the peak data speed of 98.9 megabits per second achieved using our on-orbit Block 1 BlueBird satellites.

As a reminder, our ASIC is designed to support up to 10 gigahertz of processing bandwidth per satellite, which is nearly 10 times improvement from our in-orbit Block 1 BlueBird satellites. Over time, we expect further gains of up to additional 10 times improvement in user experience through AI-enabled spectrum management. Turning to manufacturing. We are in various stages of production and assembly through BlueBird 46, which is in line with the number of spacecraft required for continuous coverage in key markets. A detailed cadence of our deployment plan is shown in the accompanying quarterly presentation found on our IR website. We continue to leverage our 95% vertically integrated manufacturing strategy to move at the pace and precision needed to scale a constellation of the largest satellites in LEO at a scale unprecedented in low-Earth orbits.

We currently have over 500,000 sq ft of manufacturing and operations space globally, including our dedicated macro production facility to help accelerate satellite production as we ramp up into our target cadence of six fully assembled satellites per month. We recently unveiled plans for an additional 400,000 sq ft of manufacturing and production space in Midland, Texas, as we prepare to further scale production for United States government and our extended TAM of commercial applications. We expect our global manufacturing and operations footprint will exceed 1 million sq ft of manufacturing capability, with over 900,000 sq ft residing in the United States once completed. We are proud to be manufacturing the largest satellites in LEO here in the United States and in Texas, where bigger is better. In summary, AST SpaceMobile is executing across every critical dimension of our business.

We have expanded our commercial partner ecosystem now with over 60 MNO partners globally who collectively cover over 3 billion subscribers. Our comprehensive spectrum strategy continues to strengthen across our satellite technology, capable of tuning to approximately 1,150 megahertz of tunable spectrum with shared MNO spectrum and controlled MNO spectrum totaling approximately 100 megahertz of access in the U.S. and over 60 megahertz access globally. As an early indicator of success from our expanding total addressable market of opportunities, we increased our revenue backlog to approximately $1.3 billion in aggregated contracted revenue, agreements with partners, and contracts award with the U.S. government. These opportunities are supported by our robust balance sheet of more than $3.7 billion, making us well-positioned to lead the commercialization of space-based cellular broadband and create a significant long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I will hand it over to Colin.

Thank you, Abel. Since our last investor update call, AST SpaceMobile has continued to make great progress in our commercialization efforts. I would like to take you through some of that progress across our MNO and government customers and put in context the business opportunity ahead of us, which only continues to increase at breathtaking speed. In the commercial ecosystem, we are viewed as the partner of choice for direct-to-device with mobile network operators, as evidenced by the ecosystem we have built, with now over 60 MNO partners globally who collectively cover over 3 billion subscribers. Network deployment in key markets with strategic partners is well underway. Our challenge is how to balance deployment of our cellular broadband service into the next set of markets beyond the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. government.