Lynk Global, Inc., the world’s leading satellite-direct-to-phone telecoms company, has announced the successful completion of pre-commercial tests for its fifth satellite. The completion of this technical milestone advances toward Lynk’s planned deployment of its global ‘cell-towers-in-space’ service later this year.
To date, Lynk’s fifth satellite has connected to thousands of unique devices including smartphones and tablets, IoT devices, cars, trucks, and even tractors. It has done so across five different countries, (Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), spanning three continents, enabling direct two-way connectivity between devices and Lynk’s satellites. During testing, Lynk’s satellite in orbit connected to mobile phones from eight of the top ten mobile network operators in the world.
Lynk’s latest technical development builds on the company’s mission to connect everyone, everywhere, and will underpin Lynk’s future commercial service. Indeed, the company has already signed contracts with seven mobile network operators for its commercial service, with more to be announced in the coming year.
Lynk’s CEO and Co-Founder Charles Miller, who is set to speak at the SmallSat Symposium (February 8-10) in Silicon Valley, says, “The mobile phone is the most important piece of technology in the lives of billions of people. It has revolutionized the way we communicate and transformed economies and societies around the world. Yet, existing terrestrial-based towers do not, and will never, provide coverage for vast regions of our planet. At Lynk, we believe that every single person should be able to access affordable, reliable mobile connectivity everywhere. We’re excited to see the completion of pre-commercial tests for our fifth satellite as we move one step closer to launching commercial services later this year.”
As part of this announcement, Lynk is releasing a map illustrating some of the “world firsts” accomplished during testing, and an image of its new satellite design, optimized for “satellite direct to phone” capabilities.
Charles Miller will be speaking on the “The State of SmallSat Constellations: Prospects for Current and Planned Systems” panel at the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley at 9:30am PT, on February 8. Miller will be releasing additional details on Lynk’s accomplishments during his panelat the event.