We're already there, it's just a matter of provisioning LEO constellations and sorting out market-fit, although Starlink Direct-to-Cell (D2C) is probably the least enticing offering.
As it stands both ASTS and Lynk Global use 3GPP standards to allow standard, unmodified mobile phones to connect directly to cell towers in space, bridging terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) without requiring special user equipment
It's looking like 3GPP is shifting away from faster networks and into networks that are programmable, energy-budgeted platforms.
Anybody doing experiments with components where power is transmitted by a transport provider? Ambient IoT sounds like a classic 3GPP proposal that utterly fails because every time they publish, nobody follows on with legitimate investment. Am I too cynical?
Following on from the machinations of the O-RAN ALLIANCE, and the complete wheel-spinning nonsense that was OpenRAN, at least they're doing something nation-state agnostic. The last decade has been one long appeasement of China Telecom and Huawei by diminishing the value-add from proprietary SaaS and RAN vendor lock-in in the Euro and US Telecoms market.
How are all those promised cloudified network functions in k8s containers with the much vaunted 'AI' based orchestration and life-cycle management doing in 2026?
I really like the improvements to satelite connectivity, brings us one step closer to a future where LEO broadband like Starlink/OneWeb is a commodity
As it stands both ASTS and Lynk Global use 3GPP standards to allow standard, unmodified mobile phones to connect directly to cell towers in space, bridging terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) without requiring special user equipment
https://www.satellitetoday.com/connectivity/2025/11/12/analy...
https://spacenews.com/the-merger-between-satellite-and-cellu...
Yo dawg...
It's looking like 3GPP is shifting away from faster networks and into networks that are programmable, energy-budgeted platforms.
Anybody doing experiments with components where power is transmitted by a transport provider? Ambient IoT sounds like a classic 3GPP proposal that utterly fails because every time they publish, nobody follows on with legitimate investment. Am I too cynical?
How are all those promised cloudified network functions in k8s containers with the much vaunted 'AI' based orchestration and life-cycle management doing in 2026?