Satellite battle for vehicle connectivity
A consortium using an Intelsat satellite is taking on the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) to provide data links to vehicles.
Intelsat is working with Cubic³ in Dublin and Softbank in Japan on a seamless connectivity service for all types of vehicles using satellite and cellular links based on 3GPP specifications.
The three have demonstrated successful integration between Intelsat satellites and Cubic³’s software platform.
This comes as BMW demonstrates the first satellite links to vehicles on public roads this week with operator Viasat as part of the 5GAA.
While the Intelsat demo is aimed at heavy machinery, Cubic³ has car makers in its sights as it already supplies the cellular links for software defined vehicles, including Vokswagen through Cariad. In early 2024, Softbank invested €473m in Cubic, which provides technology for software-defined vehicles (SDVs) across 200+ countries and other high-value Internet-of-Things (IoT) assets.
“Car manufacturers need global, high-speed, always-on connectivity to transform into software-first entities and meet evolving consumer mobility demands. This test demonstrates how our technologies can work together to enable that future,” said Nick Power, Chief Technology Officer at Cubic³
Intelsat used its Flex Move Fleet service with the Cubic³ Cloud interface for a commercial land mobile demonstration with heavy machinery. This is a major step forward in the collaboration between Intelsat, Cubic³ and SoftBank, say the three companies.
This aims to create a new, differentiated one-stop shop for the land mobile industry that can be customised with both terrestrial cellular networks and non-terrestrial networks.
“Our Memorandum of Understanding and successful test brings us closer to our vision of truly ubiquitous connectivity,” said Bruno Fromont, Chief Technology Officer at Intelsat.
“By combining Intelsat’s satellite expertise with Cubic³’ connectivity platform, we’re creating solutions that will keep vehicles connected anywhere in the world, enabling critical functions from broadband connectivity, diagnostics to eventually supporting autonomous driving capabilities.”
The service will initially use geostationary (GEO) satellites for applications such as fleet management, telematics, predictive maintenance, and software updates in areas beyond terrestrial coverage. As new low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations launch, the system will evolve to support higher-bandwidth use cases including high-definition map downloads, and cloud-based vehicle diagnostics using digital twins.
“Non-terrestrial networks are not just a backup option—they’re an essential component of the connectivity ecosystem that will power tomorrow’s vehicles,” said Fromont.
The collaboration also builds on a collaboration agreement signed in 2024 between Softbank and Intelsat to create a single ubiquitous network using 3GPP 5G and NTN standards.
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