Rakuten & Vodafone join mobile space race

Rakuten and Vodafone have become the lead investors to extend mobile coverage by launching a network of satellites that can transmit 5G mobile data anywhere in the world from space and connect all devices addressing rural environments in developed nations and tackling the difficulties in network deployment in developing regions across the planet using the first mobile broadband network that will be broadcasted from space with a $26m investment into Texas-based Avellan Space Technology & Science to turn ordinary mobile phones into satellite using low-Earth-orbit (LEO), low-latency satellites.