A French Satellite Became A 5G Base Station For The First Time And Established Communication With Earth
- 10.09.2026, 21:17
During the mission in orbit, three technologies were combined at once.
French satellite operator Univity announced the successful completion of the uniSpark demonstration mission: a satellite carrying a 5G base station on board established a two-way connection with a ground terminal for the first time. The tests were conducted from the French space agency CNES’s facility, and the satellite itself was launched into orbit in June 2025 as part of the France 2030 government program.
During the mission in orbit, three technologies were combined: full 5G signal processing directly on board (rather than simple relaying), operation in the millimeter-wave band (which allows for the transmission of massive amounts of data), and time-division duplexing, in which data transmission and reception alternate within a single frequency resource. By comparison, traditional architecture allocates a separate portion of the spectrum for each direction. This refers to the NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) concept—networks that extend fifth-generation terrestrial communications infrastructure using satellites. According to the company’s estimates, this approach gives operators access to new frequency resources.
Implementing this was no easy task: the base station was located several hundred kilometers from the Earth’s surface and was moving at orbital speed, so the distance to the terminal was constantly changing. Engineers had to additionally compensate for signal propagation delay and the Doppler effect (frequency shifts due to the movement of the signal source). In addition, duplexing requires ultra-precise synchronization of equipment on Earth and in orbit in terms of both time and frequency. After a series of tests, the ground-based device synchronized and registered on the uniSpark network as a standard 5G subscriber—a process that took just two years.
“We are moving from technological promises to in-orbit proof of concept,” said Univity founder and CEO Charles Delfieux. “We have demonstrated the ability to operate in a real space environment using technologies built on the foundation of terrestrial 5G networks. This is a decisive step toward our goal of working with telecom operators to develop space infrastructure that will allow them to extend their networks beyond Earth. Space can finally become a natural extension of terrestrial networks.”
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