NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 18:14 ET — After-hours
- AST SpaceMobile shares fell 2.7% at the close and edged up about 0.5% in after-hours trade.
- AT&T said it has brought a fourth satellite “ground gateway” online and plans a limited beta satellite service in the first half of 2026. AT&T Newsroom
- A regulatory filing showed AST director Keith Larson bought 625 shares at $80 per share under a pre-arranged trading plan.
Shares of AST SpaceMobile fell 2.7% on Wednesday, pulling back after a 4.5% rise a day earlier, as traders weighed new partner and regulatory signals into year-end positioning.
The pullback matters because AST SpaceMobile has become one of the market’s more volatile ways to bet on “direct-to-device” connectivity — using satellites to connect to standard, unmodified smartphones when users are outside cell-tower range. Google
AT&T’s latest update put fresh attention on the near-term buildout needed for service, including ground infrastructure and a limited beta program. That timeline is a key marker for investors trying to pin down when AST’s constellation can move from demonstrations to broader commercial use.
ASTS closed at $72.63 and was up about 0.5% at roughly $73.00 in after-hours trading. The shares traded between $71.61 and $75.50 during the regular session.
About 10.4 million shares changed hands, below the stock’s 30-day average volume of about 13.75 million, data showed.
In a blog post dated Dec. 29, AT&T said it has brought its fourth “ground gateway” online — a ground station that links satellite traffic into the carrier’s terrestrial network — and positioned the gateways to maximize coverage and performance. AT&T Newsroom
Robert Walters, AT&T’s senior vice president for network planning, wrote that “we plan to offer a select number of AT&T customers and public safety on FirstNet beta satellite service in the first half of next year,” referring to FirstNet, AT&T’s network for first responders. AT&T Newsroom
Walters also said AST has announced it is on track to complete four more launches by March 2026, a timetable investors have been using to track progress toward broader coverage.
A Form 4 filing showed AST director Keith Larson bought 625 shares of Class A common stock at $80 per share on Dec. 24, held indirectly via an IRA. The filing said the transaction was executed under a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted in September — a pre-set trading plan that can limit how much discretion an insider has over timing.
The stock also drew attention after Levi & Korsinsky said on Tuesday it had commenced an investigation of AST SpaceMobile concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.
AST operates in a competitive satellite-communications landscape that includes SpaceX’s Starlink and Globalstar, which are also working on low-Earth-orbit networks aimed at extending mobile connectivity beyond tower coverage. Zacks Equity Research, writing on Nasdaq.com, flagged AST’s “premium valuation” and said richly valued stocks can be sensitive to broader macro swings. Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Composite fell about 0.8% on Wednesday, which weighed on growth shares broadly. ASTS’ 52-week range of $17.51 to $102.79 underscores how quickly sentiment has shifted around the sector’s “space-to-phone” theme. Google
U.S. equity markets will be closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day and reopen on Friday, Jan. 2. Traders will be watching for firmer details on launch timing, network readiness and the path from beta testing to commercial rollout.
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