- It seems like it was only yesterday that Derek Peterson marked his last official day at Boingo Wireless
- Today, Peterson said he’s been hired as the CTO, Enterprise & Platforms, at AST SpaceMobile
- It’s a great fit – Peterson can use his extensive skills and expertise in convergence and apply it to satellite connectivity
Derek Peterson, who recently marked his last official day at Boingo Wireless, is now the CTO, Enterprise & Platforms, at AST SpaceMobile.
Peterson made the announcement today on LinkedIn after attending last week’s Wireless Global Congress in Vienna, Austria.
Besides his role as CTO at AST SpaceMobile, “I'll also lead the CIO and CSO functions, so that means enterprise IT, platforms, infrastructure, the corporate networks and cybersecurity,” he said.
Fierce reached out to AST SpaceMobile, which confirmed the move.
Peterson as convergence advocate
Peterson wore many hats at Boingo over the course of about 15 years: CTO, CIO, CSO, CPO and COO, according to his LinkedIn profile. His responsibilities included overseeing strategy, engineering, IT, security, product and operations across Wi-Fi, distributed antenna systems (DAS), CBRS, private 5G and neutral-host networks at airports, stadiums and military bases.
Importantly, as his profile notes, he’s been a champion of Wi-Fi/cellular convergence and OpenRoaming, a framework advocated by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) that allows mobile devices to connect automatically and securely to Wi-Fi without requiring consumers to constantly manually type in logins or passwords.
It’s in that spirit of convergence that he’s joining AST SpaceMobile, which is one of the players going up against SpaceX, Amazon Leo and others in the direct-to-device (D2D) industry.
“Connecting a regular phone straight to a satellite is the piece that completes the convergence picture. I've spent my career chasing seamless connectivity, and I'm excited to join an innovative team that's building it from space,” he said. “More soon.”
AST SpaceMobile backs European D2D efforts
After a topsy-turvy few weeks – including a 10% fall after SpaceX made its 800 MHz buy – AST SpaceMobile’s shares were up about 6% today. That came as four European operators signed a letter of intent to explore a potential joint bid for Mobile Satellite Spectrum (MSS) spectrum.
Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone announced the initiative, noting that they don’t intend to directly participate in the creation of a satellite constellation. “This will be provided by a satellite partner yet to be selected,” they said in a joint press release, without naming anyone.
AST SpaceMobile welcomed the letter of intent and said it’s an important step in extending connectivity to subscribers wherever they live, work and travel.
The Midland, Texas-based satellite company has an existing JV in Europe that’s providing a dedicated network of European-operated ground infrastructure that links its BlueBird satellites with mobile operators’ core networks.
“This infrastructure is designed to support coverage across Europe, a market with over 500 million mobile subscribers, while keeping data handling and service control within European jurisdiction. Operators retain their customer relationships as satellite connectivity extends the reach of their terrestrial networks,” AST SpaceMobile said in today’s press release.
AST SpaceMobile says its next-generation satellites will be capable of supporting voice, video and broadband services for consumers, businesses and governments. Its satellite technology can tune across about 1,150 MHz of mobile operator partners’ low-and mid-band spectrum globally.
“Together with AST SpaceMobile’s S-band priority rights, this flexibility enables the company to combine participating operators’ spectrum with satellite spectrum to support expanded coverage and capacity in European markets, subject to applicable authorizations,” the company said.
Read more about Boingo, AST SpaceMobile and convergence on Fierce Network
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