Iridium Communications has announced that the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has approved its proposal to extend the capabilities of Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) for Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) in the 3GPP Release 19 Work Plan. This development will enable Iridium’s satellite services to be accessible through industry-standard chipsets, advancing the company’s newest service, Iridium NTN Direct, over its global network. This initiative, born out of Iridium’s Project Stardust, aims to launch the first truly global 5G NB-IoT service. Release 19 is expected to be finalised by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Project Stardust, launched by Iridium in January 2024, aims to standardise NB-IoT communication over its operational Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. Since then, the company has made significant progress, including a successful technical demonstration earlier this year. As part of its ongoing efforts, Iridium has also joined GSMA and plans to conduct additional trials and demonstrations in early 2024.
“We’re already well into our technology development, and we’re excited about our progress and to see so much enthusiasm from the 3GPP community,” said Greg Pelton, CTO, Iridium. “As a Cloud-based service powered by the flexibility of our software-defined satellites and building upon recognised industry standards, we’ve been able to jump off to a super-fast start. Our team is really motivated to make this happen.”
Iridium NTN Direct will provide an opportunity for smartphone manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), chipmakers, mobile network operators (MNOs), and IoT developers using 3GPP standards-based technologies to leverage Iridium’s network and global spectrum, offering a low-latency LEO user experience worldwide.
“When it comes to providing D2D, we don’t have to be first, but we have to be the best. Iridium NTN Direct is an important initiative for us, and we’ve been able to pivot on an unprecedented scale and make significant progress toward providing the best service,” added Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium. “We’re grateful for the wide industry support of our vision to expand access to Iridium’s global lifeline service by enabling it for anyone with a cellular device.”
The Iridium satellite constellation, with its crosslinked LEO design and global L-band spectrum, offers advantages over other LEO and geostationary satellite networks. Known for its reliability and certified to provide safety-of-life services by international regulatory bodies, Iridium remains the only network delivering connectivity to every part of the globe, according to the company. Unlike geostationary systems, Iridium’s LEO network is not impacted by line-of-sight issues, large power demands, or outages caused by a single satellite failure, making it a more resilient and reliable solution.
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