As an important contributor to the 3GPP NTN standard, MediaTek has been actively promoting innovation in satellite communication technology for many years, working closely with industry leaders to test and develop advanced 5G NTN solutions.
In fact, as early as August 2022, MediaTek announced the completion of the world’s first 5G NTN satellite phone laboratory connectivity test, allowing smartphones to directly access the internet through satellite signals. In the future, 5G phones can be directly used as satellite phones.
The test was jointly completed by MediaTek and Rohde&Schwarz in Germany. Based on the functions and procedures defined in the 3GPP R17 specification, the test was jointly completed by MediaTek with the mobile communication chip carrying 5G NR NTN Satellite Network function, together with the low orbit satellite channel simulator and test base station of Rohde&Schwarz.
In a laboratory environment, the simulated satellite has an altitude of 600 kilometers and a speed of up to 27000 kilometers per hour, using a low orbit satellite communication mode.
According to the latest introduction from MediaTek, its satellite communication product solutions in the coming years will be based on the 3GPP 5G R17 standard, and will simultaneously develop IoT-NTN and NR-NTN technologies.
Among them, IoT-NTN technology is designed for low-speed connections, used to transmit text information and can communicate in both directions.
The current Satellite Network has already supported IoT-NTN on a large scale. The first batch of satellite communication smart phones adopting the MediaTek scheme will support this technology.
At present, MediaTek has partnered with Bullitt to launch two commercial smartphones based on 3GPP NTN technology, the Motorola Defy 2 and CAT S75, both of which use MediaTek’s MT6825 3GPP NTN chipset and support Bullitt satellite communication services. They can be used for bidirectional satellite communication information transmission, location sharing, and SOS emergency call for help.
This chipset can be connected to geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellites, and can be easily converted to 3GPP NTN standard Satellite Network for use; Allow devices to automatically receive information from satellites without the need for users to manually check the information; It also has a longer battery life.
The MediaTek MT6825 chipset adopts a highly integrated independent design, allowing device manufacturers to easily and quickly integrate into 5G and 4G devices such as smartphones.
Moreover, unlike other non-standard solutions, it is based on the 3GPP R7 NTN open standard, which has lower development difficulty and cost, and can accelerate product launch.
NR-NTN technology can achieve higher connection rates and support high-bandwidth applications such as video calls, allowing smartphones, IoT devices, and cars to gain fast and reliable satellite communication advantages.
MediaTek is about to release chipset products that support NR-NTN, suitable for navigation, real-time communication and other application scenarios, and have broad prospects in personal, enterprise, and industrial fields.