The link up with AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based company, has a target of reaching 100 per cent coverage across the entirety of Europe and will be challenging the likes of Starlink, part of Elon Musk -owned company SpaceX, the Amazon-owned Space Kuiper and OneWeb, which is part of the French organisation Eutelsat.

Elon Musk’s Starlink could receive up to $20 billion in government funding if the Commerce Department goes ahead with plans to rip up the rule book on rural broadband contracts, according to the Wall Street Journal.