MCLEAN, Va. - Tuesday, 17. September 2024 AETOSWire
(BUSINESS
WIRE) -- SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) and Intelsat signed a
groundbreaking collaboration agreement that will lead to the launch of a
single “Ubiquitous Network” enabling customers to stay connected
everywhere they go. SoftBank and Intelsat will jointly lead research and
development of seamless 5G connections between terrestrial mobile
networks and satellite communications networks.
In a society
where everyone and everything is increasingly dependent on staying
connected, convenient, and always-on, telecommunications are essential.
However, despite the coming realization of autonomous mobility with
automobiles, ships, drones and other vehicles, many areas are still
without ground-based mobile network coverage and require separate
devices and accounts to connect to non-terrestrial networks.
Through
the new collaboration, SoftBank and Intelsat plan to jointly develop a
hybrid communication solution that allows users to stay connected via
available networks, whether terrestrial or satellite, anywhere in the
world with the convenience of one device and one account. The solution
will build on the same standard architectures, interfaces and processes
that enable roaming of devices between terrestrial cellular networks
today and will help make the commercial adoption of mobility solutions
based on new 3GPP 5G standards for non-terrestrial networks a reality
much sooner.
One of the key goals of the collaboration is to
develop a universal device that will always stay connected regardless of
where in the world it goes. For example, a future connected vehicle
equipped with such a device will be able to seamlessly switch to a
non-terrestrial satellite communication network when outside of
terrestrial mobile network coverage. The targeted solution is expected
to have wide commercial applicability, including in land mobile,
maritime, and disaster response and recovery.
Design,
development, field testing and commercialization of new hybrid network
products between Intelsat and SoftBank will be conducted in phases,
aligned with the development of the new 3GPP 5G non-terrestrial network
standards. The resulting hybrid solutions will allow for existing
satellite terminals to be used in the near term and newer 5G-based
terminals as they become available.
“Intelsat and SoftBank share a
pioneering vision of Ubiquitous Networking and seamless
interoperability between satellite and terrestrial networks,” said Bruno
Fromont, Intelsat Chief Technology Officer. “Until now, the challenge
was aligning standards that allowed the two different networks to
connect. With recent progress on 5G-based standardization of
non-terrestrial networks led by Intelsat at 3GPP and this strategic
collaboration with SoftBank, we are ideally positioned to accelerate the
design and practical implementation of commercial hybrid services that
will allow devices to freely roam between satellite and terrestrial
networks.”
Hideyuki Tsukuda, Executive Vice President and CTO of
SoftBank said, "By using technology that switches between terrestrial
mobile networks and satellite communication networks through roaming, we
can integrate the two previously separate networks and utilize
satellite communication as an extension of mobile communication. Through
this joint research and development, SoftBank and Intelsat will aim to
build a Ubiquitous Network where people and things around the world can
be connected to communication anytime, anywhere."
About Intelsat
Intelsat’s
global team of professionals is focused on providing seamless and
secure, satellite-based communications to government, NGO and commercial
customers through the company’s next-generation worldwide network and
managed services. Bridging the digital divide by operating one of the
world’s largest and most advanced satellite fleet and connectivity
infrastructures, Intelsat enables people and their tools to speak over
oceans, see across continents and listen through the skies to
communicate, cooperate and coexist. Since its founding six decades ago,
the company has been synonymous with satellite-industry “firsts” in
service to its customers and the planet. Leaning on a legacy of
innovation and focusing on addressing a new generation of challenges
Intelsat team members now have their sights on the “next firsts” in
space as they disrupt the field and lead in the digital transformation
of the industry.
About SoftBank Corp.
Guided by the
SoftBank Group’s corporate philosophy, “Information Revolution –
Happiness for everyone,” SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) operates
telecommunications and IT businesses in Japan and globally. In the
fiscal year ended March 2024, SoftBank Corp. registered 6,084.0 billion
yen of revenue, 876.1 billion yen of operating income and 489.1 billion
yen of net income. SoftBank Corp. has 40 million mobile subscribers in
Japan, and through its group companies, 63 million smartphone payment
(PayPay) users, 85 million online media (Yahoo! JAPAN) users and 97
million communication app (LINE) users (as of May 9, 2024). Building on
its strong business foundation, SoftBank Corp. is expanding into
non-telecom fields in line with its “Beyond Carrier” growth strategy
while further growing its telecom business by harnessing the power of
5G/6G, IoT, Digital Twin and Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions,
including High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)-based stratospheric
telecommunications. While constructing AI data centers and developing
homegrown LLMs specialized for the Japanese language with 1 trillion
parameters, SoftBank is applying AI to enhance radio access network
performance (AI-RAN) with the aim of becoming a provider of
next-generation social infrastructure. In recognition of its ESG
initiatives, SoftBank Corp. was selected for inclusion in the Dow Jones
Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) for 2022 and 2023, achieving the
highest score in Japan and registering as the only company in the
country to be selected for the Telecommunication Services industry group
in 2023. To learn more, please visit https://www.softbank.jp/en/.
Follow Us on Social Media:
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/INTELSAT
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelsat
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intelsat/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/intelsatmedia
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240916589802/en/
Permalink
https://www.aetoswire.com/en/news/1709202441456
Contacts
Melissa Longo - melissa.longo@intelsat.com; +1 240-308-1881
No comments:
Post a Comment