Satellite

Aviation Groups, Iridium Still Don’t Like Ligado-AST Space Mobile Deal

Ligado wants discovery in its $39 billion lawsuit against the Defense Department

Jake Neenan

Jake Neenan

— 3 min read
Aviation Groups, Iridium Still Don’t Like Ligado-AST Space Mobile Deal
Photo of one of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites from the company

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2026 – Several aviation industry groups and others are still not fans of Ligado and AST SpaceMobile’s proposed direct-to-device spectrum deal.

The partnership would make it effectively impossible for Ligado to deploy a terrestrial network with the same L-band spectrum, they argued, something the company secured FCC approval for in 2020 but has yet to do.

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