Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) shares faltered Wednesday. The McLean, Va.-based company, a leading provider of global voice, data, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellite services, announced that Mlink Technology Inc. (Mlink), a leading fabless semiconductor company specializing in IoT and satellite communication chipsets, has begun live, on-air testing of its MS150-IR IoT-NTN chipset using Iridium NTN Direct℠. MS150-IR is a specialized version of the MS150 chipset family, developed specifically for Iridium NTN Direct as part of Mlink's global IoT-NTN product portfolio.
Mlink joins a growing ecosystem of chipset providers supporting Iridium NTN Direct, Iridium's 3GPP standards-based non-terrestrial network (NTN) service. By integrating Iridium NTN Direct, Mlink's chipsets will help device manufacturers, module makers and mobile network operators (MNOs) extend low-power IoT connectivity beyond the reach of terrestrial networks through a single global satellite platform. The companies anticipate certification and product availability before the end of 2026.
"We're excited by Mlink's strong progress and the successful transition from lab testing to live on-orbit validation over the Iridium network," said Iridium Executive Vice President Tim Last.
"This achievement demonstrates the technical maturity of both teams and the readiness of Iridium NTN Direct. We look forward to certification of the MS150-IR chipset later this year, giving our partners and customers additional high-quality, standards-compliant options for global NB-IoT and D2D connectivity."
IRDM shares fell 69 cents, or 1.6%, to $43.40.
