It will open in summer and adopt Open RAN in its efforts to build a European space/Earth ecosystem on common standards
Vodafone announced it will open what is says is Europe’s first research hub dedicated to developing integrated low Earth orbit space-based and land mobile broadband services. This tech will allow customers to switch seamlessly between satellite and 4G/5G networks using their smartphones.
Ultimately, Vodafone intends to expand the hub to become a fully managed network and service operations centre for third-party companies across Europe.
Vodafone’s demo’d the first space mobile video call using such a service on 27 January 2025 to underline its commitment to providing ubiquitous mobile coverage for its 340 million customers in 15 countries, and its network partners in 45 more markets.
The operator claims it “is spearheading the introduction of commercial direct-to-smartphone mobile broadband satellite connectivity across Europe later in 2025 and 2026”.
Mission in Málaga
The hub is located at Vodafone’s European innovation centre in Málaga, Spain, and will open by summer. It is supported by an initial grant from the Spanish Space Agency. AST SpaceMobile and the University of Málaga (UMA) are Vodafone’s lead partners on the project although other technology companies and developers are invited to join.
The grand plan is to foster a new European ecosystem of combined satellite and Earth connectivity solutions.
The Vodafone hub will concentrate on the design, testing and validation of new open source hardware, software and processing chips that can work interchangeably in space and terrestrial networks. It will house a space-to-land gateway (see picture above), like the one Vodafone used for its video call via space direct to device.
This will allow partners and other operators to test and validate their own services connected to AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites before launching them commercially.
Vodafone wants to encourage collaboration across the industry by enabling other operators and vendors to test services through the hub in the hope of driving innovation and delivering universal connectivity, faster and more efficiently.
What the leaders say
Alberto Ripepi, Vodafone Group Chief Network Officer, said, “Vodafone, together with AST SpaceMobile and the University of Málaga, will forge partnerships with like-minded organisations to build harmonious space and earth networks to meet Europe’s ambitious targets for ubiquitous digital connectivity.”
Chris Ivory, AST SpaceMobile Chief Commercial Officer, added, “This partnership will drive forward our shared vision of providing space-based cellular broadband connectivity directly to everyday smartphones everywhere, leveraging our innovative satellite technology with the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit.”