Standards: How 3GPP Brought Satellites into Mobile
How has the mobile industry's standards process absorbed satellites, and what does that mean for phones and operators?
Chapter summary
From Release 17, frozen in 2022, the 3GPP standards that define LTE and 5G include "non-terrestrial networks" (NTN): features that let standard phones and IoT devices work with satellites despite long distances, Doppler shift and moving cells.
Key takeaways
- 1
Release 18 improved coverage and mobility; Release 19, frozen in December 2025, added "regenerative" payloads in which a full base station sits on the satellite, plus store-and-forward and direct phone-to-satellite-to-phone links.
- 2
Release 20, due around 2027, begins the move to 6G, in which satellites are expected to be part of the network from the start.
- 3
Standards turn D2D from bespoke deals into a market: any compliant phone can work with any compliant satellite network in the bands it supports.
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