Footprint model

An approximate coverage map

The caps on the globe are the ground area where a handset would see that satellite above a chosen elevation. They move with the satellite. They are a geometry exercise, not AST SpaceMobile's service map. The arrays are steerable, and the company has not published a beamwidth this site can copy.

The assumption

Take the Earth as a sphere of radius 6,378 km. A satellite at altitude h is visible above elevation ε out to an Earth-central angle of 90° − ε − η, where the nadir angle η satisfies sin η = (R / (R+h)) cos ε. The ground radius is that angle times R. The painted area is the spherical cap, 2πR²(1 − cos α). The tracker defaults to 25°, and the legend can switch it to 20° or 30°. A higher mask is a smaller cap. At 500 km and 25° the radius is on the order of 850 km; at the horizon it is closer to 2,500 km.

The optional inner ring uses 55° as a stand-in for a tighter beam cluster. It is labeled that way because it is a hobbyist guess. Do not read it as the cell size AST sells.

What it is not

A footprint is not a license, and a license is not a phone that works. Whether a country has authorized direct-to-cell, signed a partner, or only been named in a press release is on the countries page, with the source for each row. AST's own 2022 note claimed a BlueWalker 3 field of view over 300,000 square miles. That number is theirs. This site does not reproduce it.

The same cone decides the line on the next-overhead card: if the pass peaks above the mask, the observer passes through the cap. The pass list itself uses a separate 10° horizon, which is about seeing the spacecraft, not about being inside a service beam.

Last reviewed 2026-11-14. Sources are linked beside the claims they support.