The Megaconstellation Monthly is Quilty Space’s monthly news roundup on the NGSO satellite systems shaping today’s LEO satcom market, from Starlink’s global broadband machine to AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-device ambitions. Each edition curates the key developments across the satcom stack and anchors them with a Quilty QuickTake on what it all means.
A glimpse of a few of the stories we covered in this month’s Mega:
 
SDA back on Track(ing): Tranche 3 Tracking slipped into Q4, added a fourth prime, expanded from 54 to 72 satellites, and crossed the line from missile warning into fire-control-quality custody.
Amazon Leo drops the clutch: One more Atlas V launch brought the constellation to 180 satellites, with three launch vehicles queued for 2026 as the company flirts with airlines and makes more Space Coast investments.
AST’s BlueBird 6 takes flight: BlueBird 7 is now readied for a Falcon launch, AT&T integration moved forward, FirstNet demos went live, and FCC friction intensified.
Direct-to-Cell keeps outrunning regulators: Hundreds of satellites, millions of users, and spectrum borrowed from EchoStar are all moving faster than national frameworks can coordinate. The political logic is becoming as important as the technical.
“Starlink Mobile” sparks phone hype: Trademark filings and new retail stores fueled speculation, even as the filings point more toward service branding and distribution control than a handset play.
International regulators push back on Starlink: South Africa’s equity workaround got slapped down, Papua New Guinea pulled the plug on unlicensed service, and China enforced its maritime ban. Scale doesn’t eliminate sovereignty. It just makes the fights louder.
Iridium reminds everyone how incumbency works: A new EMSS infrastructure contract, a push to formalize GMDSS rules, and expanding PNT deployments reinforce how hard it is to dislodge a system once it’s embedded in safety-of-life and defense workflows.
Canada signals real money in the Arctic: A modest study award masks a >$5B milsatcom upside that went to the homegrown Telesat-MDA Space team.
Globalstar sharpens its Big LEO defense: December filings reframe C-3 as a referendum on exclusivity itself, warning the FCC that prying open the band risks collapsing two decades of MSS investment logic.
Muon keeps climbing the value chain: Another SBIR win pushed its Quickbeam sensor from wildfire and environmental monitoring into missile warning. Early integration of SpaceX’s mini-laser OCT positions Muon as a bus-plus-sensor shop that’s aligned with what the DoD is buying.
 
Plus two special features:
A year-end BEAD wrap-up, unpacking how satellite awards are really being used, why the headline numbers are misleading, and how Starlink and Amazon Leo are playing fundamentally different games on the same field.
Key takeaways from Starlink’s 2025 Progress Report, cutting past marketing metrics to focus on industrial scale, network structure, mobility expansion, and what the report confirms about Starlink’s evolution into infrastructure.