Redefining Mobile Satellite Communications
Redefining Mobile Satellite Communications for Connected World
Mobile satellite communications play a vital role in connecting remote areas, enabling emergency response, supporting maritime and aviation industries, and ensuring military and government operations remain functional in the most demanding environments. However, achieving seamless connectivity via satellite presents a variety of challenges, including signal degradation, latency, interference, and power constraints. Overcoming these obstacles requires innovative engineering solutions, advanced signal processing, and adaptive network architectures.
To address this issue, Terrestar Solutions Inc., a Canadian satellite operator, in collaboration with Bittium and TTP plc to the develop Sat Companion, a next-gen telecom device that enables direct-to-mobile 5G NTN services on any smartphone, anywhere.
The Sat Companion prototype will be showcased at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona.
“The Sat Companion and its design marks a new era in mobile communications. Today, we’re leveraging our 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) technologies and MSS spectrum to ensure seamless direct-to-mobile satellite communications for everyone, everywhere. The future of telecom is truly at hand.”
Serge Legris, Eng.
Chief Technology Officer, Terrestar Solutions
Bringing Direct-to-Mobile Satellite Connectivity to Everyone, Everywhere
The Sat Companion is a compact, battery-powered device that extends 5G NTN GEO satellite connectivity to standard smartphones. Designed for durability and portability, it features a universal magnet-based fastening mechanism, an intuitive user interface, including a USB charging port, power button, Wi-Fi connectivity, and LED indicators for effortless operation. By integrating messaging and voice over NB-IoT through Terrestar’s mobile app, the Sat Companion will ensure seamless on-the-go connectivity. Bittium has played a leading role in the Sat Companion development project, executing the first prototype build with modern rapid prototyping techniques to achieve a near-production-quality surface finish.
One of the challenges in establishing GEO satellite connections from mobile handsets is delivering sufficient radio frequency (RF) power to maintain a reliable link, while simultaneously ensuring that Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) levels remain within regulatory limits. Balancing these factors is crucial for enabling seamless, safe, and efficient satellite communication on mobile devices. Bittium designed an S-band RF front end with high TX output power (2W) and a low RX noise figure to establish a reliable RF link between smartphones and GEO satellites. The RF front-end solution is integrated with the Qualcomm 9205S NTN 5G modem chipset and TTP’s innovative integrated satellite antenna for enhanced performance.
Sat Companion TM is a trademark of Terrestar Solution Inc.
“We are proud to have played a key role in developing this innovative 5G NTN device alongside Terrestar Solutions. This collaboration highlights our commitment to cutting-edge solutions and our ability to bring visionary ideas to life. Together, we have created something truly impactful, and we look forward to continuing our strong collaboration in the future.”
Juha Lyijynen
Sales Director, Bittium
Turnkey Product Development Services for Secure Wireless Devices
Bittium, with a strong background in engineering services, provides reliable and secure solutions for connectivity, tactical communications and biosignal measuring and monitoring. Our designs range from satellite communications and military radios to small products in different IoT categories. Whether it’s a handheld radio for tactical communication, a medical monitoring device, or a sports tracker for a runner, our team of 500+ engineering experts and advanced in-house laboratories deliver comprehensive end-to-end product development services to our customers.
Our priority is to ensure the success of our customers’ products by delivering high-quality design work throughout the product life cycle. Our expertise covers:
- Production testing, production (through EMS partners).
- Product concepting and system design.
- Power analysis and design for especially battery powered systems.
- Product hardware engineering / PCB design.
- Antenna design and RF engineering in general.
- Antenna + RF = Over-the-Air (OTA) performance optimization.
- Integration, verification and validation, including conformance testing.
- Agile methods for software design, testing and analytics.
- Continuous Integration/DevOps, test automation.
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Contact Us to Get Your Project Started
Martti Perälä
Sales Director, Engineering Services
martti.perala[at]bittium.com
Markku Pikkarainen
Sales Director, Engineering Services
markku.pikkarainen[at]bittium.com
Juha Lyijynen
Sales Director, Engineering Services
juha.lyijynen[at]bittium.com