The interest in the generation of non-terrestrial cellular networks and the business opportunities are reflected in the scale of activity in recent years, as painting according to the 3GPP 5G criteria has driven the convergence of satellite and cellular networks and raised the option of a true and ubiquitous ( and perhaps, eventually, high-speed connectivity).
NTN was one of the main topics at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and dominated discussions at the 2024 Satellite Show in Washington, D. C. a few weeks later. Mobile network operators, phone makers and chipset corporations are establishing partnerships, developing products and, in some cases, have already begun offering services, with more expected to emerge this year.
However, the area remains expensive and technically challenging, and while there are plenty of headlines on both sides, most of the players driving NTN are start-ups or young or small corporations, and even among established corporations, NTN has already made some missteps.
This is the first component of a review of major publicly known components and services, recent progression agreements and progress, as well as some hiccups along the way.
In one of the most famous deals and one that has already resulted in smartphone-based customer service, Apple announced in late 2022 that it would invest $450 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund in satellites and ground stations for its emergency SOS service. on iPhone 14 models (and later iPhone 15 models) for U. S. customers. In the U. S. and Canada.
The majority of this investment went to Globalstar to make “critical upgrades” to the company’s 24-satellite LEO network and floor stations. Apple’s Emergency SOS satellite service uses spectrum in the L and S bands. As Apple describes it: “When an iPhone user makes an emergency SOS request via satellite, the message is transmitted through one of Globalstar’s 24 satellites in low-Earth orbit traveling at speeds of approximately 16,000 mph. Ground stations use new high-power antennas. Designed and manufactured in particular for Apple through Cobham Satcom in Concord. Cobham workers design and manufacture the high-powered antennas, which will obtain the signals transmitted through the satellite constellation. Globalstar said Apple is allocated 85 percent of the capacity of its satellite constellation, with the satellite operator proceeding to offer existing services. , adding IoT connectivity, with the remaining 15%.
Apple has been offering the Emergency SOS service for free for two years after activating a version of iPhone 14 or 15. In fact, in November 2023, the company extended free generation for another year for existing iPhone 14 users, and also added a satellite. Roadside assistance service to connect users to AAA, also available for two years. Apple iPhone users can also share their location via satellite to “reassure friends and family about their location when traveling off-grid. “
“Emergency SOS via satellite has helped save lives around the world. From a man who was rescued after his car fell off a 400-foot cliff in Los Angeles, to lost hikers discovered in Italy’s Apennines, we keep hearing stories from our consumers. that they were able to contact emergency services when they would otherwise. “I couldn’t do it,” Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of international iPhone product marketing, said in late 2023, when the free expansion of the service was announced. .
In February 2023, Globalstar said Apple had loaned the company $252 million to help cover the initial costs of rebuilding its LEO constellation.
Starlink has signed several agreements to provide direct-to-cellular service with cellular network operators, adding T-Mobile US, Rogers in Canada, KDDI in Japan, Optus in Australia and One NZ in New Zealand, Salt in Switzerland and Entel in Chile and Peru.
Satellite provider approaches service releasers. Starlink introduced its first D2C-enabled satellites, or Starlink 2. 0, in January of this year, and the company said that within days of its launch it successfully sent and gained the first text messages, using Earth’s spectrum. T-Mobile US Text service is expected to begin this year, Starlink said, and will be followed through voice, knowledge and IoT facilities in 2025. The service is based on LTE; Starlink already has FCC authorization to test direct-to-cellular features on the box using T-Mo’s 1. 9 GHz FDD spectrum. As Starlink describes, its carrier partners around the world “offer critical LTE spectrum on the 1. 62. 7 GHz diversity that we use to transmit our satellite signals. This allows Starlink to integrate as a popular roaming partner with operators and in combination we provide direct and seamless facilities to their customers. Our network operators have access to reciprocal global access that allows their users to access the service when traveling to any of our partner countries. There is demand and interest in this program, and phone providers and cellular operators are eager to check out and participate in a successful rollout.
Direct-to-device service provider Skylo introduced its service in January this year and also raised $37 million in an investment circular in February, co-led through Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavors and joined through investors who added BMW i Ventures and then Samsung Catalyst Fund. The investment “expands Skylo’s scale and business operations to larger customers of smartphones, wearables, IoT devices, and cellular network operators,” according to Skylo, which called it “a major milestone in Skylo’s commitment to create more available and effective non-standards-based devices. “Terrestrial networks (NTNs) for many industries, including consumer, automotive, agriculture, energy, transportation, and more.
“We were inspired by Skylo’s global connectivity solution that enables ‘always-on and connected’ communication for the automotive industry,” Kasper Sage, managing partner of BMW i Ventures, said in a statement. “Skylo has a proven solution and equipment that will make satellite connectivity a new option for the next generation of cars while keeping people and their reports uninterrupted wherever they go. “
Tami Erwin, former CEO of Verizon Business, recently joined Skylo’s board of directors; Over the past week, IoT module manufacturer Semtech announced that it has incorporated Skylo NTN access into two of Semtech’s HL78 modules, which are also terrestrial LPWAs employing Cat-M and NB-IoT (see Skylo’s list of qualified devices, modules, and chipsets here). . Semtech said access to NTN can be enabled with a software update expected to be released this quarter, pending testing and certification with the Skylo network. “Giving consumers the ability to connect using NB-IoT through a satellite network when the classic floor policy is not having it is a primary benefit,” Semtech said.
“By integrating NTN into our HL78 modules through an undeniable software upgrade, we are editing the features of our existing products, giving our consumers a truly broad competitive advantage,” said Larry Zibrik, vice president and general manager of modules at Semtech.
Direct-to-cell satellite company AST SpaceMobile announced in January that it had gained two new title sponsors: AT
The company announced that it has secured a total of up to $206. 5 million in new funding for AT’s investments.
Google and AST SpaceMobile have agreed to work together on the development, testing, and deployment of AST SpaceMobile generation products on Android devices.
AST SpaceMobile said its newly orbiting BlueWalker 3 satellite is the largest advertising communications network ever built in low-Earth orbit. It also has satellites in the pipeline with beams designed to use spectrum up to 40 megahertz, which AST SpaceMobile says could potentially enable data speeds of up to 120 Mbps. ASTSpaceMobile says it has already signed agreements with about 50 cellular network operators worldwide serving around 2 billion customers, And he predicts that direct-to-cellular generation could be offering connectivity to 5. 5 billion cellular devices in use today.
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In November 2023, Qualcomm ended a partnership with Iridium aimed at creating NTN with a chipset that employed Iridium’s proprietary satellite network. Despite having effectively introduced and demonstrated the technology, smartphone manufacturers did not decide to include Snapdragon Satellite in their devices, which is why Qualcomm ended the deal. “While I’m disappointed that this partnership didn’t immediately bear fruit, we believe the industry’s direction is transparent toward increased satellite connectivity on customers’ devices,” Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, said last November. , when the partnership ended. ” Led today by Apple, MNOs and device brands still plan to offer their customers expanded policies and new features over satellite over time, and our global policy and regulatory certainty put us well-positioned to be a key player. in this emerging market. User experience will be critical to your success, and we’ve proven that we can deliver reliable global capacity to mobile phone users.
Qualcomm has indicated in published reports that the lack of interest is because smartphone makers like a popularity-based approach, not a lack of interest in satellite connectivity consistent with SE. During a consultation at Satellite 2024 in Washington, D. C. , Francesco Grilli, vice president of product control at Qualcomm, said that within the Android ecosystem there was “initially a point of major concern. ” As for Apple’s emergency messaging capability it would have a “devastating effect” on the Android system. market share, which already represents a minority of the US smartphone market. “It had an impact, but it wasn’t devastating,” Grilli said. (3) “Ultimately, the ecosystem did not need to go down a proprietary path if it could simply wait another year or two and move to the popular path. ” Two things to keep in mind here: 1) It is not uncommon for the cellular industry to rush to market a proprietary solution that outperforms the popular ones and then abandon it once the popularized edition is available; What does 5G TF mean to you? and 2) Apple’s smartphone sales surpassed those of Samsung devices in 2023 globally, marking the first time since 2010 that Samsung is not at the top of the smartphone market; However, IDC attributes at least that to the rise of Apple and the various offerings from other Android players.
-More recently, the Bullitt group, which had licensed its generation to players like Motorola for its Defy 2 rugged smartphone with satellite messaging functions supported through a MediaTek chipset, was disintegrated. The company, founded in 2009, appeared to be growing for years and posted profits of more than $1 million in 2017, after which it sold a majority stake to a private equity firm. In its monetary filings, Bullitt attributed disruptions to its business to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the war in Ukraine, which reduced its sales in Eastern Europe; the company lost $10 million each year in 2021 and 2022, and its losses increased to $22 million in 2022. Bullitt introduced its Defy satellite link dongle and smartphone in 2023 and won the Global Mobile (GLOMO) award for the device most productive in the world. exhibition at the MWC. Barcelona 2023 for the dongle, but the company did not have the running capital to finance its hardware sales, according to the document, and in September 2023 it was looking for a buyer. In December 2023, Bullitt was in a dire monetary situation and attempted to raise more financing, but was unsuccessful and went into administrative status and laid off its 70 workers in February 2024. Bullitt had around $253 in its bank account when I enter. . insolvency and more than two billion dollars in secured and unsecured debt.
The company’s founders bought its intellectual assets for about $265,000. According to Bullitt’s website, the company has offered a 12-month free trial of its SOS service and plans at $4. 99 per month.