Over 99% of Americans and Canadians are covered by at least one cellular network. That’s a testament to how mobile operators have built out their networks over the decades.
But that figure has a big asterisk: It’s based on where people live. Vast amounts of land — 16% of the U.S. and 70% of Canada — have no cellular service. In fact, only about 10% of the planet has cellular service. One reason is that a lot of land is too sparsely populated to justify the expense of building cell sites. Another is that 71% of the Earth’s surface is oceans, seas, and lakes.
All these numbers add up to challenges for people and things that spend a lot of time in or traveling through remote areas. Examples include IoT sensors and controllers for precision agriculture, asset tracking, monitoring intermodal shipping containers, and navigation for autonomous vehicles.
Hence the rise — literally — of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), which extend connectivity to areas where cellular is unavailable. Read on to learn about NTN use cases, NTN’s relationship with GNSS, and what to consider when choosing an antenna system for NTN applications.
Strength in Numbers
NTNs use satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and drones operating between 8 km and 36,000 km above the Earth.
Source: 5G Americas
Some NTNs are temporary, such as HAPS deployed to cover a region where a storm has wiped out cellular infrastructure. But most are permanent, such as LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite constellations.
Three major milestones in NTN’s rapid ascent are:
- The burgeoning number of constellations means mobile operators have ample options, including Amazon/Kuiper, OneWeb, Skylo, which is Verizon’s NTN partner, and SpaceX/Starlink, which is T-Mobile’s NTN partner.
- 3GPP Releases 17 and 19 enabled seamless hybrid connectivity between cellular and satellite networks.
- The addition of satellite capabilities to the iPhone and Android models such as the Samsung S25 are building consumer and enterprise awareness of NTN’s applications and benefits.
One key difference between NTN and legacy satellite constellations is that the latter require specialized hardware, which can be cost prohibitive for many IoT and other applications. As smartphones such as the iPhone and S25 show, NTN hardware is relatively inexpensive — to the point that device OEMs can include it without charging a premium.
NTNs complement not only cellular networks, but also GNSS. By extending connectivity to locations that lack cellular coverage, NTNs provide a way to share the GNSS-enabled positioning information that’s a fundamental part of so many IoT applications. Some examples:
- A tractor trailer loaded with high-value goods uses NTN to upload real-time location information when it’s on rural interstates that lack cellular coverage.
- A piece of mining equipment uses NTN to upload a geofence excursion alert, potentially indicating theft.
- A farm uses NTN to ping agriculture equipment in remote areas to report their precise locations, eliminating the time and expense of driving around to look for them.
- Like the farm, a construction company uses NTN to find equipment sitting idle on remote job sites so they can be moved to new locations that need them.
NTN has a couple of caveats, starting with its reliance on GNSS for synchronization. Hackers, defense organizations, terrorists, and others are increasingly jamming and spoofing GNSS. Those attacks can affect NTN — a possibility that mobile operators, device OEMs, and end users should be aware of. For a deeper dive, see “Top GNSS Jamming and Spoofing Attacks and How to Mitigate Them.”
And for a crash course in GNSS in general, check out the following blog posts:
- “GNSS vs. GPS: What’s the Difference?”
- “Right on Time: Understanding GNSS Timing Fundamentals”
- “How to Navigate the L1, L2, L5, E5a, E5b, and G2 Alphabet Soup of GNSS Constellations and Signals”
- “How to Leverage the L-Band to Balance Accuracy and Affordability for GNSS Applications”
- “How the GNSS Evolution Enables Future Proofing”
NTN also has power consumption and latency aspects that can be problematic for some IoT applications.
Top Antenna Considerations
Another major reason for the synergy between NTNs and cellular is that many LEO and 5G bands are close enough that a single antenna can cover both. That’s why modules that support both cellular and satellite have a single RF connector for the antenna.
Supporting two networks means that the choice of antenna and its integration with the device are absolutely critical for ensuring that the solution meets user requirements for availability, reliability, and performance. For example, by the time they reach the Earth, satellite signals are weaker than cellular, so the antenna system must be capable of providing the receiver with enough to work with.
Mechanically integrating a wideband antenna into small-form-factor devices such as IoT sensors while maintaining reliable RF performance is a major undertaking. Even device OEMs with extensive cellular experience benefit from working with an antenna partner that can provide engineering services including design, integration, and testing.
To get started with NTN, check out the following resources:
- Introduction to Non-Terrestrial Networks, a portal that includes real-world case studies, blog posts, and the portfolio of Taoglas NTN embedded and external antennas.
- “Cell towers/satellites: The future of long-range connectivity,” an on-demand webinar with experts from Taoglas, Nordic Semiconductor, and DigiKey.
- “Beyond the Horizon: Designing for Unbreakable Connectivity,” an on-demand webinar featuring Taoglas, Murata, and Skylo.
- The Taoglas NLA.01 is a miniature, high-performance ceramic loop antenna purpose-built for NTN applications and small-form-factor devices.
