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Nokia and Vodafone shoot for the moon
Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has been selected by Vodafone as its technology partner to establish a 4G network on the Moon, as part of the Mission to the Moon project set to launch in 2019.
Nokia will assist Vodafone in establishing a 4G network on the Moon that will enable the first ever live-streaming of HD video from the Moon to a global audience.
The network will support the Mission to the Moon project, the first privately-funded Moon landing set to launch in 2019 from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is done in co-operation between Berlin-based PTScientists, Vodafone Germany and Audi.
“This is a crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system,” says Robert Böhme, CEO and founder of PTScientists. “In order for humanity to leave the cradle of Earth, we need to develop infrastructures beyond our home planet. With Mission to the Moon we will establish and test the first elements of a dedicated communications network on the Moon.”
Nokia’s role, through Nokia Bell Labs, will be to create a space-grade network – the lightest ever developed at less than one kilogramme. The 4G network will enable two Audi lunar quattro rovers to communicate and transfer scientific data and HD video via a base station on the Moon onwards to Earth.
Back on Earth, Nokia is keeping busy with 5G, and is co-operating with T-Mobile to deploy a nationwide 5G multi-band network in the US using Nokia’s 5G solution. The roll out will begin this year and is set to be completed during 2020.
The Finnish telecommunications giant is also pioneering 5G efforts in China and Europe, and has had an all around eventful week behind it.