April 27, 2026 -
The 5G NTN modem IP can reduce development time, engineering costs, and risk.
By Anton Shilov, embedded.com
Ceva Inc. introduced its PentaG-NTN modem IP subsystem, aimed at satellite user terminals supporting low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellations, at MWC 2026. The soft IP is set to simplify the development of 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) modems by companies without experience in satellite modem development. This could democratize the market for 5G NTN modems as well as make satellite communications more widespread than they are today.
The standardization of the 5G NTN technology as part of the 3GPP Release 17 in early 2022 enabled mobile devices to connect beyond cell towers to satellites and other high-altitude platforms to significantly extend their coverage to areas where there are no regular cell phone networks. Furthermore, at 6G, chances are high that terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks will converge.