AST SpaceMobile, Inc (NASDAQ:ASTS) stock is trading higher Tuesday after the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones, announced another unprecedented leap in telecommunications by successfully making the first-ever 5G connection for voice and data between an everyday, unmodified smartphone and a satellite in space.

Company engineers demonstrated space-based 5G connectivity by placing a call from Maui, Hawaii, USA, to a Vodafone Group Plc (NASDAQ:VOD) engineer in Madrid, Spain, using AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) spectrum and AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 test satellite — the largest-ever commercial communications array deployed in low Earth orbit. Fifth-generation or 5G mobile networking is the fastest, most efficient, highest-throughput, lowest-latency, and flexible wireless standard ever released by the 3GPP consortium.

ASTS placed the 5G call on September 8, 2023, from an unmodified Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd (OTC:SSNLF) Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone located near Hana, HI, in a wireless dead zone. 5G connectivity testing was completed with the company's partners Vodafone, AT&T, and Nokia Corp (NYSE:NOK). The company broke its previous space-based cellular broadband data session record in a separate test by achieving a download rate of approximately 14 Mbps.