Mavenir was chosen by Iridium Communications to provide the core network for the satellite player’s NTN Direct offering to enable 3GPP-based direct-to-device (D2D) services globally.
The deployment will use Mavenir’s cloud-native converged packet core running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Iridium’s satellite-terrestrial NB-IoT integration and future D2D offerings.
The vendor’s suite of packet core network functions includes session management, user plane, policy control, subscriber management, network exposure, and messaging capabilities, all designed for high availability and geo-redundancy across AWS regions.
Planned for commercial launch in 2026, Iridium’s NTN Direct service will support roaming use cases like messaging, tracking, and monitoring for IoT, and industrial device applications such as international cargo logistics, remote utility monitoring, smart agriculture, and emergency response.
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Unlike rivals AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global, Iridium is banking on a 3GPP-based approach for D2D communications because it makes use of its existing assets and industry standard chipsets.
Financial terms and the length of the partnership were not available.
Mavenir was among the vendors building EchoStar’s open RAN, greenfield 5G network, which is being decommissioned following the sale of wireless spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T.
In June, Mavenir and private equity company Siris Capital signed a recapitalisation transaction with the vendor’s lenders to erase over $1.3 billion in debt while securing $300 million in new financing.
