Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM) announced that Mlink Technology Inc. has begun live, on-air testing of its MS150-IR IoT-NTN chipset using Iridium NTN Direct, the company's 3GPP standards-based non-terrestrial network (NTN) service.

The MS150-IR is a version of Mlink's MS150 chipset family developed specifically for Iridium NTN Direct. The chipset had previously completed laboratory testing and has now moved into over-the-air testing over the Iridium satellite network. The two companies said they anticipate certification and product availability before the end of 2026.

"This achievement demonstrates the technical maturity of both teams and the readiness of Iridium NTN Direct," said Tim Last, Executive Vice President at Iridium. "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."

Zhiping An, Co-Founder and Vice President of Mlink, said the company has also introduced a reference design kit to help customers accelerate product development and commercialization.

Iridium NTN Direct operates over Iridium's network of 66 cross-linked low Earth orbit satellites and is designed for IoT applications including asset tracking, logistics, utilities, agriculture, automotive, industrial monitoring, and remote infrastructure. Mlink joins other chipset providers that have partnered with Iridium to support the service.

Mlink Technology, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Beijing, is a fabless semiconductor company focused on IoT and satellite communication chipsets. Iridium Communications is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.