Mobile phones connected to a satellite, anyone? A Virginia, US-based mobile tech company, Lynk Global, Inc. today announced it had registered hundreds of unmodified mobile phones to its 5th “cell-tower-in-space” in 3 different countries – the UK, the US & the Bahamas.
Lynk’s 5th satellite with the name, “Shannon”, was launched on June 30, 2021. It had now connected with, & registered hundreds of mobile phones in initial tests. After Virginia, Lynk had successfully repeated the tests in the UK, with testing permission from Ofcom, & in the Bahamas with the support of mobile network operator (MNO) partner Aliv. This proved that Lynk had solved the last major technology barrier to connecting everybody, everywhere with a standard mobile phone, the company said in a press release. Lynk is the world’s only independently certified provider of cell-tower-in-space connectivity.
This critical milestone conclusively proves Lynk’s proprietary core satellite technology works with ordinary mobile phones on Earth, enabling broadband, voice and text messaging — from everywhere — with the phone in your pocket.
-Lynk
“Lynk has provided independent testing data that proves it is connecting existing Aliv devices that roam onto the Lynk system on areas outside the Aliv coverage footprint in the Bahamas” said Dr. Stephen Curran, Aliv’s CTO, in the press release. “The testing has proven the technology’s ability to simultaneously register and authenticate mobile devices. Lynk will provide a critical maritime communication service for our users. The Caribbean is also known for extreme weather events, and for earthquakes. Lynk will assist Aliv in providing emergency communications back-up when the network experiences major issues, and our sites are down.”
“Six years ago, the entire world thought it was impossible for a satellite to connect two-ways to existing mobile phones in use today,” says Charles Miller, Lynk’s CEO & cofounder in a written statement. “Lynk has now done the impossible. We recently announced the first operators to sign up for our Flagship Carrier Program, Aliv in the Bahamas and Telecel Centrafique in the Central African Republic. These and others will launch commercial services in their countries in July 2022, beginning our journey to serve the unconnected around the world.”
“Lynk has solved the ‘Uplink Challenge’” explained Lynk CTO and cofounder, Tyghe Speidel. “Our 5th satellite has successfully completed it’s commissioning tests which includes our antenna and core mobile processing tests demonstrating the ability to receive and process signals from terrestrial subscriber phones on Earth that are out of terrestrial coverage. This is especially tough because of the noise from millions of other phones communicating terrestrially in the same mobile operator spectrum at the same time in our spot beam.
We have repeatedly demonstrated the intricate two-way signaling required for a phone to connect to our cell tower in space, involving multiple instances of uplink and downlink messages, including a device request for channel access, and then the corresponding authentication and location update procedures.”
Mobile Phones Connected To Satellite, How It Will Help People
Lynk feels that connecting the unconnected, with only the existing mobile phone in their pocket, will jump-start economic growth in remote & rural communities. Another benefit is instantaneous backup emergency communications everywhere on Earth. Currently, cellular systems are rendered inoperable when they are needed the most such as natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires as well as the aftermath of security related incidents. Lynk believes that “Nobody should die because the phone in their pocket is not connected.”
Lynk Global Inc. has positioned itself as “the world’s only independently verified space-based mobile network
provider.” The company’s patented technology allows standard mobile phones to be connected virtually anywhere via low-Earth-orbit satellites without any change to hardware or software.
Image credit: Lynk
