At this year's Mobile World Congress, Europe made a bold statement about where it stands in the race for next-generation connectivity. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the GSMA Foundry jointly announced a funding programme worth up to €100 million, designed to accelerate the merging of satellite and mobile network technologies — a field increasingly seen as foundational to the 6G era.
The initiative targets what experts describe as non-terrestrial networks (NTN) — a category of connectivity infrastructure that combines space-based and ground-based systems. Antonio Franchi, Head of 5G/6G NTN Programme Office at the European Space Agency, described this infrastructure as the "backbone" required to fully unlock both 6G and artificial intelligence capabilities at scale.
"The funds will develop technologies, networks, services which ultimately will benefit society as a whole and industry in the digitalisation of everything,"Franchi told Euronews Next. The practical applications he envisions are wide-ranging — from telemedicine and telesurgery to autonomous driving and precision agriculture, all dependent on reliable, far-reaching connectivity.
The fund is structured around four strategic pillars:
- AI-driven management of multi-orbit satellite and terrestrial networks
- Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity for smartphones and IoT devices
- Collaborative 5G/6G testbeds
- Early-stage 6G research into edge intelligence and advanced IoT
EU member states can access the fund by having companies or organisations submit a formal proposal, with final decisions resting with ESA. The announcement represents one of the most substantial European public commitments to the commercialisation of hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks to date, arriving at a moment when competition over next-generation connectivity infrastructure is heating up globally.
GSMA Chief Technology Officer Alex Sinclair framed the collaboration in expansive terms.
"By combining the reach of the mobile industry with ESA's space expertise, we are unlocking a new era of connectivity,"he said, noting that the programme's benefits would extend "even in the most remote regions."
The announcement carries a deliberate geopolitical undertone. With American companies currently dominating the satellite internet landscape, Franchi argued that Europe's strengths in high-tech manufacturing and specialised software position the continent to build a competitive, independent alternative.
"We want to help European industry step up and show their true colours. Public funding is here to mitigate the risk, allowing companies to dare to develop solutions that can scale globally,"he said.
Several European firms are already being spotlighted through the programme at Mobile World Congress, including Nokia, Filtronic, Celeste, Lasting Software, OQ Technology, and MinWave Technologies. These companies are conducting live demonstrations of NTN orchestration and hybrid network architectures — offering a concrete preview of what Europe's connected future could look like in practice.
Perhaps the most striking element of the showcase is a mixed-reality model of ESA's Argonaut lunar lander — the European-built craft designed to deliver cargo to the Moon. Visitors can remotely operate a training rover over a live satellite link, while Nokia RXRM's 360° cameras stream footage from inside the LUNA facility, Europe's lunar analogue site. It's a deliberate signal that the connectivity infrastructure being built today isn't just for terrestrial applications — it's intended to support operations beyond Earth as well.
