After Apple and Samsung, MediaTek to bring satellite connectivity to phones

Chipmaker MediaTek mentioned on Friday that it will likely be demonstrating its modern 3GPP Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) know-how that brings two-way satellite communications to smartphones on the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which is able to happen from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain.

NTN is a communications know-how that makes use of satellites and different non-terrestrial autos to bring connectivity to areas that had been beforehand unreachable by terrestrial networks, whether or not over mountains, throughout deserts or in the course of the ocean.

The chipmaker can even launch the primary smartphones with MediaTek’s satellite connectivity, with extra gadgets to be unveiled within the coming months.

“Two-way satellite communications on smartphones and different gadgets will usher us into a brand new period of connectivity and open up new potentialities throughout many various verticals,” J.C. Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of MediaTek’s wi-fi communications enterprise unit, mentioned in an announcement.

Moreover, the corporate will workforce up with Bullitt (UK-based cell phone producer) to bring the world’s first commercially obtainable gadgets with 3GPP NTN know-how, utilising the MT6825 chipset to join to the Bullitt Satellite Connect platform.

This will embrace the Motorola defy 2 and CAT S75 smartphones; and the Motorola defy satellite hyperlink, a compact and light-weight Bluetooth accent that permits Android and iOS gadgets to join to the Bullitt Satellite Connect platform, in accordance to the corporate.

The Bullitt SatelliteConnect service will present customers with entry to two-way satellite messaging, location sharing, and emergency SOS in additional locations all over the world.

In the approaching years, MediaTek’s satellitecommunications portfolio will concentrate on each IoT-NTN and NR-NTN know-how primarily based on the 3GPP 5G Release 17 specification (R17).

IoT-NTN is good for messaging since it’s designed for low information price connections, whereas NR-NTN permits for larger information charges that may help video calls and different purposes, mentioned the corporate.

(With inputs from IANS)