PHILIPPINES – vivo showcased its latest satellite communication prototype at MWC Shanghai 2023 on June 28, 2023. The event served as a venue for cutting-edge businesses and trailblazers to exchange the most recent ideas on the development and future of connectivity.
Based on the vivo X90 Pro+ handset with custom modifications, the prototype is understood to support 3GPP R17 non-terrestrial network (NTN) two-way satellite communications. It uses a radio frequency (RF) baseband integrated solution and internal antenna, supports n255/n256 dual-frequency, and is compatible with the Inmarsat/Tiantong-1 satellite system.
Though mobile network coverage in the country has expanded widely through the years to reach even remote areas, it still remains unavailable in some places, especially in Mindanao.
With this revolutionary satellite communication technology, Filipinos will be able to send and receive information even in areas without terrestrial cellular network coverage such as wilderness, ocean, and forest.
vivo’s satellite communication prototype is equipped with the first satellite communication system-on-a-chip (SoC), V8821, which will be mass-produced soon.
V8821 is capable of communicating via L-band Inmarsat satellite and S-band Tiantong satellite. It can be extended to support other high-orbiting satellite systems to meet communication needs in areas such as the ocean, urban fringe, and remote mountain areas where cellular networks cannot cover.
V8821 is flexible in hardware configuration, enabling customers to reuse hardware resources in existing solutions, improving deployment efficiency, and avoiding high cost and time consumption.