According to the New York Times, “Initially launched in September 2022, BlueWalker 3 is the forerunner of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites,” which seek to improve global access to the internet in spots around the globe that have cellular coverage gaps. Truly, it’s a noble cause, to democratize access to online and cell services across the world, thus including more people in the collective consciousness that is the internet.
That lovely cause complicates the issue, unfortunately, especially considering that it has proved to successfully improve connectivity in traditional cellular dead zones. On September 19th, 2023, the BlueWalker 3 managed to allow an engineer in a dead zone in Hawaii to have a two-minute-long call with another engineer in Spain.