MediaTek has completed a successful field trial for internet of things (IoT) 5G satellite communications using Inmarsat's Alphasat L-band satellite.
The company ran the test with a base station located at the Fucino Space Center in Italy and developed by Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III). The test device was located in Northern Italy, built with MediaTek’s satellite-enabled NB-IoT chipset. The system successfully established a communication channel and data transfer with the Alphasat, which is located 35,000 kilometers above the equator.
MediaTek said the test could provide proof for the feasibility of new global standards and open market potential of using a single device for connecting both satellite and cellular networks. The IoT field test is part of an initiative to establish 5G standards toward new use cases and services using non-terrestrial networks (NTN).
