Photo: Ligado.

Ligado has chosen Mavenir as its partner to develop base stations for its 5G mobile satellite network, the company announced Thursday. Mavenir is an end-to-end, cloud-native network software provider. 

Ligado is working to build a 5G mobile satellite network in the L-band to provide machine-to-machine communications to enterprise customers in the transportation, agriculture, utilities, and energy sectors. The company plans to adapt 3GPP standards-based technology, which it said will enable the network to support devices using mainstream, low-cost chipsets. Ligado plans to launch service trials in 2022. 

Mavenir said its 5G base station development will be based on ORAN, or Open Radio Access Network, an interoperability standard. 

“With this engagement, Mavenir and the ORAN ecosystem not only strengthen their place in enterprise deployments but also enter a phase of innovation in cellular service delivery via non-terrestrial networks,” said Pardeep Kohli, president and CEO of Mavenir. “We are looking forward to expanding our Open RAN product portfolio to meet the evolving needs of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks and their co-existence in the future.”

Ligado is pressing forward with its L-band network deployment, and plans to launch service trials in 2022. In June, the RETAIN GPS and Satellite Communications Act was introduced in the Senate which would require Ligado to cover the cost of addressing any interference caused to commercial devices, not just that associated with government systems. The bill is currently assigned to a committee. 

Separately, Charlie Bolden, former NASA administrator and retired U.S. Marine Corps major general joined Ligado’s board this week.