Vodafone Ireland makes first European D2D emergency call via AST

Vodafone Ireland, with the government's Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, said on July 2 it completed what it called Europe's first live direct-to-device emergency-services satellite call, connecting a standard smartphone through AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird constellation on Clare Island, County Mayo. The test - run via Satellite Connect Europe, the Vodafone–AST SpaceMobile joint venture - showed frontline responders could keep voice and data service where terrestrial networks are unavailable. AST SpaceMobile shares rose after the trial as the company scales its space-based cellular broadband network.