680 checked sources · Quick start · 20 minutes
Satellites — a base station in orbit
A satellite here is a base station that happens to be flying, and 3GPP's name for the whole idea is a non-terrestrial network. The line of work this course follows opens with one Release 15 radio study and has grown to 183 rows of 3GPP's work plan under 155 short names, which 35306 meeting documents on this machine carry between them, over 550 separate meetings. Four short chapters: what the words mean, why anyone wanted a phone to talk to orbit, who is building it and where the weight sits, and what exists on paper today. Every number was read out of 3GPP's own paperwork on this machine, and the last chapter says plainly what that paperwork cannot tell anybody.
This course was built from a source register generated 2026-08-05.
The chapters
Part 1 What it is and why it was wanted
- 1 A base station in orbit The words for a network that reaches a phone from space, each one taken from the 3GPP document that defines it. 5 min
- 2 Why anyone wanted a phone to talk to orbit The reason in the work items' own words, the one study the whole line starts from, and the two halves a reader keeps meeting. 4 min
Part 2 Who built it, and where to look
- 3 Who is building it, and where the weight sits How big this subject is, which groups carry it, the busiest meeting on record and the companies that file the most. 4 min
- 4 What exists on paper, and where to look yourself The seven documents worth opening first, and the honest list of questions this record cannot answer at all. 5 min
What this course is built on
- Chapters
- 4
- Words written for you
- 3,385
- Checked sources
- 680
- Sources this course cites
- 62