AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) stock bounced back Thursday from yesterday, surging 5.2% in the first 10 minutes of trading on a big advance in direct-to-cell satellite communications (DTC) technology.

After close of trading yesterday, Reuters reported that (NASDAQ: VOD) has completed "the world's first video call via satellite using a standard smartphone from a remote location" -- and the satellite used was an AST SpaceMobile BlueBird.

Curiously, it seems Vodafone itself announced this development a whole day earlier, on Tuesday, but no one noticed. Heralding the "first space video call from an area of no coverage using a standard mobile phone and commercial satellites built to offer a full mobile broadband experience," Vodafone explained that the video call was placed from a "remote mountainous location in mid-Wales ... where there has never been mobile broadband before" to its own CEO at Vodafone's "new space-to-land gateway."

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Source Fool.com