In a bid to bring coverage to connectivity blackspots, Vodafone has teamed up with AST SpaceMobile to make calls using satellites. Vodafone has successfully made a mobile video call using satellite technology on an ordinary smartphone in what it describes as a “world first”. Connecting to a satellite in low-Earth orbit, Vodafone engineer Rowan Chesmer video-called Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, from a remote mountainous area of Wales, where there has never been mobile broadband signal. Della Valle said this cutting-edge satellite technology will now complement the company’s advanced European 5G network. Vodafone has been a lead investor in AST SpaceMobile since 2019.