{"id":56227,"date":"2026-07-16T23:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/56227\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:05:12","slug":"viasat-and-bmw-test-first-integrated-satellite-voice-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/56227\/","title":{"rendered":"Viasat and BMW test first integrated satellite voice call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viasat<\/a> has demonstrated the first automotive satellite voice call fully integrated into a BMW Group<\/a> vehicle platform, a milestone for connected car communications outside cellular range.<\/p>\n

Viasat engineers ran the demonstration out of Munich, and the company frames it as an early step toward folding Non-Terrestrial Network communications into standard vehicle design rather than treating satellite connectivity as an add-on. The idea driving it: a driver stranded somewhere that cellular towers don\u2019t reach \u2013 such as out on a mountain pass or across open farmland \u2013 could still make a call through the car\u2019s own systems, no separate satellite phone or clip-on device required.<\/p>\n

None of that makes it a finished product. Viasat hasn\u2019t named a production date, and BMW Group hasn\u2019t attached the technology to any model year or trim level. A demonstration in a controlled setting in Munich tells you the concept works when the conditions are managed. However, it says considerably less about how the same system holds up against rain, dense tree cover, mountain terrain, or the dozens of small failure points that show up once actual drivers are involved.<\/p>\n

How the system links a car to a Viasat satellite<\/p>\n

Qualcomm supplied the connectivity hardware through its Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2, sitting inside the vehicle itself. Fraunhofer IIS brought its NESC AI voice codec to the table, a piece of compression technology whose job is keeping a voice call intelligible even when the available bandwidth is thin. Both run on top of NB-IoT, a narrowband protocol defined by 3GPP and built for exactly this kind of low data-rate job rather than anything resembling high-speed streaming.<\/p>\n

From there, the signal moves onto Viasat\u2019s L-band satellite network. L-band isn\u2019t picked for speed, it\u2019s picked because it holds up over distance and through weather in ways higher-frequency bands don\u2019t, which matters more for a voice call from a remote road than raw throughput would.<\/p>\n

The company built on earlier work involving eSIM capabilities from Cubic\u00b3, a software-defined vehicle solutions provider, to get to this point.<\/p>\n

Sandeep Moorthy, SVP of Advanced Non-Terrestrial Solutions at Viasat, said: \u201cThis demonstration reflects broader industry excitement to ensure consistent, resilient satellite capabilities for next-generation vehicles. By bringing standards-based NTN to vehicles, we can integrate satellite voice and messaging and ultimately enable a future where drivers can remain connected\u2014wherever the journey takes them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moorthy talks about industry excitement and future capability, but he doesn\u2019t cite latency, call completion rates, or coverage figures, and none appear anywhere else in the announcement either. That\u2019s a gap enterprise buyers should note. A demonstration proves a concept can work once; it says nothing about how often it works, or where it fails, until someone publishes the numbers.<\/p>\n

Why BMW\u2019s involvement matters more than the demo itself<\/p>\n

The detail that separates this from a standalone satellite communicator bolted onto a dashboard is how deep the integration runs inside BMW Group\u2019s own vehicle architecture.<\/p>\n

Getting voice calls to originate and terminate through the car\u2019s native interface, rather than through a bridged accessory, means BMW opened up software layers that automakers don\u2019t typically hand to outside suppliers. This partnership suggests BMW is treating satellite connectivity as something to build into the car\u2019s architecture rather than sell as an accessory.<\/p>\n

The use cases line up with what fleet operators and regulators already spend time worrying about. Emergency assistance calls that still connect when a vehicle breaks down outside cellular range. Messaging for a stranded driver. Visibility into fleet locations across regions where coverage drops out entirely. Software updates that don\u2019t stall because a delivery truck parked overnight in a dead zone.<\/p>\n

Each of those carries a different liability profile, and emergency assistance sits at the sharp end of that list. A dropped or delayed cellular call already carries consequences; a dropped satellite call, in a system marketed specifically for reaching help in remote areas, raises the stakes further.<\/p>\n

That liability sits with the automaker\u2019s own legal and safety teams, not with Viasat, Qualcomm, or Fraunhofer IIS. Proving a codec can squeeze a voice signal down small enough to travel over a narrowband satellite link is one exercise. Proving the resulting system meets whatever emergency-response standard a regulator or insurer demands is a separate one entirely.<\/p>\n

It will fall on BMW Group or any automaker adopting similar technology to run that validation itself. That means testing against partial signal blockage from terrain and tree cover, checking how a handset behaves during handover between cellular and satellite links, and building the kind of software governance that keeps an emergency-calling feature auditable across a vehicle\u2019s full operating life.<\/p>\n

The 5GAA connection and the standards path ahead<\/p>\n

Viasat, BMW Group, Cubic\u00b3, and Fraunhofer IIS all sit inside the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA<\/a>), the industry body pulling telecom and automotive companies together to build connectivity solutions meant to work across manufacturers rather than lock into one brand. That membership shapes how the announcement should be read: this looks like a contribution toward shared standards rather than a feature BMW intends to keep to itself.<\/p>\n

The system runs on NB-IoT today, a protocol built for voice and short messaging rather than anything with real bandwidth demands. Future 3GPP releases are expected to open the door to 5G-New Radio satellite services, which could eventually support video streaming and handovers between terrestrial and satellite networks that a driver wouldn\u2019t even notice happening. None of that exists yet, and nobody involved in this demonstration has put a date on when 5G-NR satellite capability might reach a vehicle a customer can actually buy.<\/p>\n

Fleet operators running vehicles through mining regions, farmland, or long-haul freight corridors have a reason to start paying attention here, even if there\u2019s nothing to buy yet. The right move is opening conversations with automakers and satellite providers now, while asking pointed questions about field data from pilot deployments rather than lab results.<\/p>\n

The potential is exciting, but it\u2019s far too early to rewrite a key safety protocol on the assumption that a demonstration in Munich translates into a system that works the same way on a gravel road three hundred miles from the nearest tower.<\/p>\n

See also: Airtel and SpaceX test Direct-to-Cell NTN service in Madagascar<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Banner\"Banner<\/a><\/p>\n

Want to learn more about the IoT from industry leaders? Check out IoT Tech Expo<\/a> taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is part of TechEx<\/a> and is co-located with other leading technology events including AI & Big Data Expo<\/a> and the Cyber Security Expo<\/a>. Click here<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

Telecoms is powered by TechForge Media<\/a>. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viasat has demonstrated the first automotive satellite voice call fully integrated into a BMW Group vehicle platform, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[44417,3510,20474,6213,41848,22854,616,3523,5869,23123,44418,44180,4890,27371,20890,44419,44175],"class_list":["post-56227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-3gpp","tag-5g","tag-automotive","tag-bmw","tag-connected-car","tag-enterprise","tag-industry","tag-infrastructure","tag-innovation","tag-iot","tag-m2m","tag-nb-iot","tag-network","tag-ntn","tag-satellites","tag-v2x","tag-viasat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}