Tests in Space: Ericsson, Qualcomm, Thales expand 5G horizon
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson, French aerospace group Thales and U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm plan to work collectively to develop a satellite-driven 5G community to enhance terrestrial connectivity.
A 5G cell gadget that may join with satellites would make communication doable from distant corners of the planet and supply a problem to costly satellite tv for pc telephones and rival broadband web companies supplied by Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The businesses will first do simulations on the bottom earlier than finishing up checks in area, Hakan Djuphammar, head of Particular Initiatives at Ericsson’s expertise arm, mentioned in an interview.
“Discussions are on for testing on the Worldwide Area Station and with a couple of satellites,” he mentioned.
An area-based community may be used to again up terrestrial networks within the occasion of main outages or disasters, and supply connections in locations not lined by conventional service suppliers.
Testing would proceed properly into 2023 because it must be seen whether or not the expertise can do that, and if it is possible to construct a community of satellites that may join with telephones, Djuphammar mentioned. He didn’t specify when the checks would start.
“The satellites transfer very quick, so the hyperlink adjustments very quickly. So we’re going to do all these checks to validate that the expertise is mature and able to carry out this stuff.”
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, writing by Anna Ringstrom; enhancing by Barbara Lewis)
