AST SpaceMobile, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the AST SpaceMobile first quarter 2024 business update call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Scott Wisniewski, Chief Strategy Officer of AST SpaceMobile. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Let me refer you to slide two 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 can 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 Space Mobile's annual report on 10-K for the year that ended December 31, 2023, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other documents filed by AST Space Mobile with the SEC from time to time. After our initial remarks, we will begin the Q&A section with questions submitted by our shareholders. Welcome, everyone. For those of you who may be new to our company and mission, there are over 5 billion mobile phones in use today around the world, but many of us still experience gaps in coverage as we live, work, and travel. There are also still billions of people without cellular broadband and who remain unconnected to the global economy. The markets we are pursuing are massive, and the problem we are solving is important and touches nearly all of us. In this backdrop, ASP Space Mobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with everyday mobile phones, supported by our extensive IP and patent portfolio. It is now my pleasure to pass it over to Chairman and CEO, Abel Avalon.

Good day, everyone. The hard work of the past few years is culminating in a period of tremendous activity and excitement for AST Space Model. We have moved past a primary focus on improving our technology and funding our growth into the next phase of executing our vision and operationalizing our business. We are shifting from R&D to full-scale production and commercialization of our base-based cellular broadband network. Our technology is proven, patented, and validated. Our commercial ecosystem is in place and growing. We're funded to achieve our near-term goals and reach initial revenue. Our business is now accelerating. Just last week, our first five commercial satellites called the Bluebirds arrived in Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing final assembly at our manufacturing facilities in Texas. These satellites are now undergoing final preparation for integration with Falcon 9 launch vehicle for a dedicated mission. We have seven-day contracted orbital launch window in the first half of September. Our current expectation is that we will launch in the first half of September. So this is ultimately based on a variety of factors outside our control, including the weather conditions. As the target date is finalized, we will communicate this with the public. To put our first commercial satellites into orbit, really is a culmination of significant progress to this day. I am incredibly proud of our team. We have spent over seven years and over $1 billion in investment to get to this point. Along the way, generating over 3,400 patent and patent-pending claims. Completing the assembly, testing, and other logistics to ensure that our Bluebirds were ready to transport to Florida and were ready to launch is a major milestone for our company and mission. These blue birds will each be the largest communications array ever to be deployed commercially into low-depth orbit. These arrays provide a strong signal that can reach standard smartphones directly to provide cellular broadband service and other non-communication government applications. With these initial commercial satellites, we are targeting nearly 100% geographical coverage for the continental United States using premium 850 megahertz low-band spectrum. which offers superior signal penetration in the low-band spectrum range. Low-band frequencies travel longer distances and penetrate deeper into buildings and through foliage compared to higher frequencies. These first five satellites will provide non-continuous cellular broadband service nationwide across the United States. After a few months of in-orbit service activation, this initial service for AT&T and Verizon beta test users will start with 5,600 cells across the country. This program was made possible in large part due to the continued and growing support of our strategic partners. During the second quarter, we secured another major strategic financing partner and customer, adding Verizon to a top-tier group that also includes AT&T, Vodafone, Google, American Tower, Rakuten, Bell Canada, and others. This $100 million commitment from Verizon, including $65 million of commercial prepayments and $35 million of convertible notes, just a few months after strategic financing with AT&T, Google, and Vodafone. It's another powerful validation of our technology and our business model. This investment closely follows the definitive agricultural commercial agreement announced with AT&T in May. Bringing on board two major U.S. mobile operators in the most valuable wireless market in the world, was a transformational commercial milestone for us. During the last few months, we shifted our manufacturing focus to increase Block II production, incorporating the lesson learned from manufacturing of the first five commercial satellites. We'll continue planning an initial production for the first 17 Block II satellites to be built in phases within the initial launch in Q1 of 2025. These satellites, when equipped with our ASIC, will be approximately 2,400 square feet in size and are expected to support up to tenfold improvement of processing bandwidth per satellite compared to Block 1 satellite that we are launching this September. We expect to start using our ASIC on our sixth Block 2 satellite, and we can use existing FPGA configuration for as long as it's required. Alongside this activity, we have not lost sight of our technology roadmap. We can now report that we have completed the ASIC chip tape-out with the SNC. This technology is the cornerstone of our Bluebird Block II program. The FT5000 ASIC is a novel custom low-power architecture developed to enable up to a tenfold improvement in processing bandwidth on each satellite. Unlocking opportunity for seamless space-based cellular broadband services More why. With the three bits per hertz that we have demonstrated using BlueWalker 3 and our planned commercial satellite capacity of up to 40 megahertz per beam, this translates to performance of up to 120 megabits peak data rates. The completion of the tape-out is a milestone that marks the culmination of five years of dedicated research, development, and engineering expertise with approximately 45 million all developed. In summary, we want to change the world. We're seeking to connect the billions of people who are not connected, improving public safety, enabling global commerce, and for the average user who can see fewer drop calls, frustrating dead zones, and missing connections. This has not been easy. We entered a new phase for our company. And deeply proud of the team we have assembled, and confident in the plan ahead of us. I will now pass to Scott to provide more details on our commercial and regulatory process.