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Iridium on Track to Provide Standards-Based Satellite Service Direct to Phones

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Sep 25, 2024, 10:11 AM by Rich Brome

The 3GPP (standards body for cellular technology) has agreed to make its NTN satellite service spec compatible with Iridium's satellites in 3GPP Release 19, due by the end of 2025. This will add a major new provider to the standards-based NTN ecosystem. Uniquely, Iridium's constellation provides 100% global service, including over oceans and in polar regions. Existing 3GPP standards include optional NTN satellite service compatible with satellites from Echostar, Viasat, Ligado, Terrestar, and Inmarsat. Skylo partners with all of those companies and facilitates satellite NTN service for Google and Verizon. NTN satellite service requires specific hardware support in a phone to work. The new Google Pixel 9 series includes this hardware, as will forthcoming phones from Samsung. MediaTek makes chipsets that include NTN support, and Qualcomm will offer them soon. Qualcomm and Iridium originally tried to partner on a proprietary solution called Snapdragon Satellite, which was abandoned after the rest of the industry chose to pursue standards-based solutions instead.

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