Iridium Communications completed successful on‑air testing of its NTN Direct satellite service by demonstrating two‑way messaging over its low earth orbit (LEO) satellite network.
The satellite player stated the on-air testing prepares the company for beta testing of NTN Direct ahead of a commercial launch in 2026.
Iridium NTN Direct aims to become the first globally available, standards‑based NB‑IoT and direct‑to‑device (D2D) non‑terrestrial network (NTN) service.
The tests rely on new 5G waveform algorithms deployed via software updates to Iridium’s software‑defined constellation. Initial test messages were sent using Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9151 low‑power module.
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Based on 3GPP’s Release 19, Iridium is banking on a standards-based approach for D2D communications because it makes use of its existing assets and industry standard chipsets. Iridium’s network operates on globally coordinated L-band spectrum.
NTN Direct will allow smartphone companies, OEMs, chipmakers, mobile operators and IoT developers that use 3GPP standard-based technologies to use Iridium’s existing LEO network of 66 active birds.
The 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.
The US-based company has partnerships in place with Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone IoT.
