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Investing.com -- Shares of AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) jumped in premarket U.S. trading on Tuesday, as it provided an updated timeline for the launch of the next batch of its BlueBird satellites.
AST SpaceMobile is a satellite-to-smartphone telecommunications company aiming to provide a high-speed, cellular broadband network through a collection of its low-Earth-orbit BleuBird satellites. Its backers include a range of companies, such as Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD), AT&T (NYSE:T), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and others.
In a statement on Monday, AST SpaceMobile said it now anticipates at least five orbital launches of its Block 2 BlueBird satellites by the end of the first quarter of the 2026 calendar year, with further launches planned "every one to two months on average." It is aiming to put 45 to 60 satellites in orbit between 2025 and next year.
It added that the assembly of microns for phased arrays of eight Block 2 BlueBird satellites had been completed, with the next assumbly of 40 satellites equivalent of microns tipped to be finished by early 2026.
"Within this updated launch/manufacturing cadence, AST SpaceMobile expects to reach intermittent service in the United States by year-end 2025 followed by service in Canada, Japan, and the UK by the first quarter of 2026," analysts at BofA Securities said in a note.
Meanwhile, the company reported a wider second-quarter loss and revenue well below Wall Street estimates, as the satellite communications company ramped up spending to build its space-based cellular broadband network.
It posted a loss of 41 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts’ expectations for a loss of 21 cents. Revenue fell to $1.15 million from $15 million a year earlier, missing estimates of $5.56 million.
AST SpaceMobile said it still expects $50 million to $75 million in revenue in the second half of 2025 from government and commercial customers. The BofA analysts said revenue for the final six months of the year looks "intact."
(Pratyush Thakur contributed reporting.)