The Global Certification Forum and the Mobile Satellite Services Association have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on standards-based satellite communications certification and interoperability for non-terrestrial network services. The agreement covers NTN 5G NR, NTN NB-IoT and direct-to-device applications, with the aim of supporting a scalable certification model and wider commercial deployment.
The two organisations will work on certification requirements and testing frameworks using GCF’s existing structure and MSSA operators’ networks for validation and field testing. The partnership is also intended to improve roaming between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks and across different NTN constellations, helping align satellite-enabled mobile services with 3GPP standards.
The collaboration is designed to support a range of device segments, including personal communications, IoT, mission-critical and automotive applications. Lars Nielsen of GCF and Lotfi Benachenhou of MSSA were identified in the announcement, which was issued from San Ramon, California and London.