Skylo says that it has completed the first voice calls using narrowband non-terrestrial network (NB-NGN) technology on its commercial network.
The company says that it will be able to expedite deployment of the technology because it has standing regulatory approvals in 36 countries using Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) spectrum. Skylo also claims its technology could support “tens of millions of calls monthly per region” on its commercially available satellite network service.
The core of the company’s technology is the Skylo Voice Gateway. Skylo says that it uses AI-native voice codecs to balance data consumption with quality of calls. The claim is that it provides more than a tenfold improvement in data usage as compared to today’s technology. This creates opportunities for mobile network operators (MNOs) to monetize new NTN services.
“This milestone is a major breakthrough enabling MNOs to deliver an expansive set of revenue generating services that their subscribers need and will love. NTN Voice Calling is something no other network can deliver at global commercial scale,” said Skylo Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder Tarun Gupta in a press release.
“The convergence of 3GPP standards-based protocols, AI-powered codecs, deep chipset-level integration, and our commercially available network will unlock a new era of mobile connectivity. We are excited to put the ‘phone’ back in ‘smartphone’ wherever you go.”
One of those potential new service offerings was announced last week. Skylo and Google announced that they have expanded the satellite connectivity to the Pixel 10 Series and introduced the Pixel Watch 4, which they say featured the first satellite-based location sharing using Android 16.
The smartwatch uses Skylo’s commercial NTN and Qualcomm Technologies’ new Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Wearable Platforms. The press release says that it is the first device to integrate NB-NTN satellite connectivity using Snapdragon W5 Gen 2.
