- Viasat is using its GEO constellation to demo direct-to-car connectivity
- There are several good reasons why consumers might want the service
- Top car manufacturers have a heightened interest in direct-to-car satellite service
Today in Sacramento, Calif., the satellite operator Viasat and carmaker BMW demonstrated satellite connectivity directly to cars, at an event hosted by the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA).
Many people now own cars that can connect to cellular networks and have an emergency SOS button they can push in the event of a crash or if their car breaks down.
Kevin Cohen, VP of direct-to-device (D2D) at Viasat, said the next evolution is for cars to connect to satellites, which can be important in remote areas that don’t have cellular service.
“So with this, when the cars go outside of cell service, you can connect to the satellites, and you still have these safety capabilities,” said Cohen. “Qualcomm and MediaTek chipsets — they're the main chipset providers for automotive connectivity — both have the capability to connect to cellular and to our satellites, because our satellites are 3GPP-compliant via narrowband IoT protocol.”
Today, Viasat and BMW demonstrated the ability to do a voice call over satellite via the car. The connection was made over Viasat’s geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellite constellation.
Why does satellite-to-car connectivity matter?
Fierce Network asked why it mattered if the satellite connectivity came through the car. Couldn’t a driver just as easily use their iPhone with emergency texting or use their Verizon service with Skylo’s satellite service, for example?
Cohen said when people are inside cars it’s difficult to get a direct line-of-sight to the sky. To use a phone they’d have to get out of the car, which could be a problem if they were seriously injured in an accident.
“Also, by being connected directly to the car, the automotive OEM knows how fast you were going, when you got into an accident, and if the airbags were deployed,” he said. “It knows how many passengers were in the car. It knows your location. So all of those things can be transmitted to the safety network.”
As for the necessary technology in the car, the Qualcomm or MediaTek chips get installed into the telematics control unit, which connects to an antenna that is affixed to the shark fin on a car or some other part of the car’s exterior.
“The good thing about our frequency bands is the L and S band that we have spectrum rights to are right around the LTE and 5G frequencies,” said Cohen.
To be clear, the technology is not built into any BMWs, or any cars for that matter, today. The event in Sacramento is just a demonstration of what’s possible. Many of the top 15 car manufacturers attend the 5GAA event, and interest has definitely heightened in terms of in-car satellite connectivity.
What is the connection to telecom?
In fact, a company called Univity is developing an LEO satellite constellation that will work with telecom operators’ 5G spectrum. And according to an email from Univity, “Connectivity requirements within the automotive industry are growing in both intensity and sophistication. Carmakers are now expected to guarantee homogeneous, continuous and reliable coverage across an entire journey, including rural roads, cross-border routes and mountainous terrain.”
Who does Viasat work with?
Viasat is a legacy GEO satellite operator, providing services such as in-flight and maritime connectivity. It serves both commercial and defense customers.
Viasat also recently announced a partnership to integrate low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites from Canada’s Telesat with Viasat’s GEO satellites to provide multi-orbit services for aviation customers.
Similar to the partnership with Telesat, Viasat also works with the LEO satellite operator OneWeb, so that Viasat’s maritime customers have access to both GEO and LEO satellites.
On the direct-to-device (D2D) side of things, Viasat taps its subsidiary Inmarsat, which has a global fleet of GEO satellites that use mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum. Inmarsat supports satellite SMS services for Verizon and others through Skylo.
“Skylo operates off of our satellites,” said Cohen. “So, Skylo has the radio access network and core, and that is what's connected to Verizon. But they're operating over Viasat satellites and Viasat’s spectrum.”
In addition to all these (rather confusing) partnerships, Viasat and its partner Space42 recently created a separate joint venture called Equatys, which is planning to deploy a LEO constellation and offer wholesale services.