Lynk Global, Inc. (Lynk) has registered hundreds of unmodified mobile phones to their 5th cell-tower-in-space in three different countries (UK, US and Bahamas). This critical milestone conclusively proves Lynk’s proprietary core satellite technology works with ordinary mobile phones on Earth, enabling broadband, voice and text messaging — from everywhere — with the phone in a user’s pocket.
Lynk’s 5th satellite (named “Shannon”), launched on June 30, 2021, has connected with, and registered, hundreds of mobile phones in initial tests, even in Virginia where Lynk connected in spite of the “noise” created by millions of mobile phones. Lynk has successfully repeated the tests in the United Kingdom, with testing permission from Ofcom, and in the Bahamas with the support of mobile network operator (MNO) partner Aliv. Lynk is the world’s only independently certified provider of cell-tower-in-space connectivity.
“Lynk has provided independent testing data that proves they are connecting existing Aliv devices that roam onto the Lynk system on areas outside the Aliv coverage footprint in the Bahamas,” said Dr. Stephen Curran, Aliv’s CTO. “The testing has proven the technology’s ability to simultaneously register and authenticate mobile devices. Lynk will provide a critical maritime communication service for our users. The Caribbean is also known for extreme weather events, and for earthquakes. Lynk will assist Aliv in providing emergency communications back-up when the network experiences major issues, and our sites are down.”
“Six years ago, the entire world thought it was impossible for a satellite to connect two-ways to existing mobile phones in use today,” says Charles Miller, Lynk’s CEO and co-founder. “Lynk has now done the impossible. We recently announced the first operators to sign up for our Flagship Carrier Program, Aliv in the Bahamas and Telecel Centrafique in the Central African Republic. These and others will launch commercial services in their countries in July 2022, beginning our journey to serve the unconnected around the world. Lynk is solving a problem that nobody else in the world is solving. We call it “The 0G Problem”. Next time you hear somebody use the phrase “5G”, ask yourself “How does 5G solve the World’s 0G problem? The answer … it doesn’t.”
“Lynk has solved the ‘Uplink Challenge’,” said Lynk CTO and co-founder, Tyghe Speidel. “Our 5th satellite has successfully completed it’s commissioning tests which includes our antenna and core mobile processing tests demonstrating the ability to receive and process signals from terrestrial subscriber phones on Earth that are out of terrestrial coverage. This is especially tough because of the noise from millions of other phones communicating terrestrially in the same mobile operator spectrum at the same time in our spot beam. We have repeatedly demonstrated the intricate two-way signaling required for a phone to connect to our cell tower in space, involving multiple instances of uplink and downlink messages, including a device request for channel access, and then the corresponding authentication and location update procedures. To date, we’ve done this with hundreds of phones in the UK, the Bahamas, and the US. This has never been proven before with a satellite cell tower and Lynk has done it. As part of the testing, we have also proven our signaling link budget (the signal power analysis) to close the link with existing mobile phones, as well as proven our ability to not interfere with existing terrestrial mobile operations while operating in the same bands.”
For more technical information, read How Lynk Proved Direct Two-way Satellite-to- Mobile-Phone Connectivity that explains what Lynk has accomplished with the hundreds of phone registration tests.
Lynk Global Inc. is a mobile technology company focused on providing universal connectivity for mobile phones and the world’s only independently verified space-based mobile network provider. The company’s patented technology allows standard mobile phones to be connected virtually anywhere via low-Earth-orbit satellites without any change to hardware or software. Headquartered in Falls Church, VA, Lynk’s leadership and engineering teams are experts in satellite engineering, space flight and policy, and wireless technologies.
