AST SpaceMobile got conditional approval from the FCC in August to operate its first five satellites, but still requires permission to test its wireless phone services. The company plans on working with AT&T and Verizon, which have both invested in the company.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile, the third major cellular provider in the U.S., is currently partnering with Starlink to test direct-to-phone satellite services, which could mean increased competition to secure frequency spectrum.

For cellphone users, this could mean that satellite connections are coming, regardless of your provider. This has been a pretty rapid shift, as the first experiments with satellite 5G only occurred in the last few years. Soon, however, it seems that satellite backup will be a standard feature of most cell phone plans. And that will be good news during outages, especially extended outages caused by natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and the 2023 Maui wildfires.