NOORDWIJK, December 4 — In a groundbreaking milestone for global connectivity, the European Space Agency (ESA), MediaTek, Eutelsat, Airbus, Sharp, ITRI, and Rohde & Schwarz have successfully conducted the world’s first 5G-Advanced Non-Terrestrial Network (NR-NTN) connection over Eutelsat’s OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, compliant with 3GPP Release 19.
The trial, conducted at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, demonstrated a 50MHz Ku-band NR-NTN configuration with successful handover, paving the way for future satellite-terrestrial network integration.
This achievement marks a major step toward ubiquitous 5G-Advanced broadband coverage, enabling seamless communication between terrestrial and satellite systems and reinforcing Europe’s leadership in next-generation connectivity innovation.
