Via Satellite illustration.

A Swedish research project is kicking off in 2025 to explore integrating mobile communication and satellite communication in 6G. The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) announced a grant of 60 million krona ($5.4 million) for the project in December. 

The project, Sustainable Mobile Autonomous and Resilient 6G SatCom, led by Swedish technical university KTH, will establish a multidisciplinary research center. 

A number of Swedish space and tech companies will participate in the research, including Ericsson, Saab, Ovzon, Beyond Gravity, Forsway, Satcube, Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), NorthernWaves, Primekey, and Airforestry. 

The center is also supported by several international universities and companies, including Eutelsat-OneWeb, Airbus, Viasat and Thales Alenia Space.

“The vision is for mobile communication services to be seamlessly available to anyone with a 6G device, anywhere, anytime. The focus will be on sustainability and energy efficiency, reliability and resilience, as well as system interoperability and always-on artificial intelligence,” SSF said in a release about the project. 

The research will focus on improving the hardware for 6G devices and satellites and developing signal processing methods to handle signal loss and interference. It will also focus on developing network technologies to integrate land and space systems, and developing intelligent applications that combine communication, localization and remote sensing.