Dublin, Jan. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “5G NTN Market – Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031” has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The Global 5G NTN Market is projected to experience substantial growth, expanding from USD 7.98 Billion in 2025 to USD 46.99 Billion by 2031 at a CAGR of 34.38%.
This market involves integrating non-terrestrial components, such as satellites and High-Altitude Platform Systems, with standard terrestrial 5G infrastructure to ensure ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Key drivers fueling this expansion include the increasing necessity for continuous coverage in maritime and aeronautical sectors, as well as the demand for resilient communication systems that remain operational during natural disasters or terrestrial network failures. Reflecting this momentum, the Global mobile Suppliers Association reported that in 2025, there were 170 publicly announced partnerships between mobile operators and satellite vendors across 80 countries and territories.
Despite these operational advantages, the sector faces significant hurdles regarding complex regulatory frameworks and spectrum allocation. Divergent international policies governing frequency usage create substantial barriers to the seamless cross-border deployment of satellite-based solutions, often requiring intricate negotiations to avoid interference with existing terrestrial services. Consequently, navigating these rigorous licensing requirements presents a formidable challenge for stakeholders seeking to establish global service interoperability and achieve mass adoption.
Market Drivers
The rapid deployment and expansion of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are fundamentally reshaping the Global 5G NTN Market by resolving historical latency and capacity limitations. Unlike traditional geostationary systems, LEO constellations operate closer to Earth, enabling the low-latency signal transmission required for seamless 5G integration and real-time applications while providing critical backhaul infrastructure for remote geographies where fiber is economically unfeasible. As reported by Space Daily in December 2024 regarding SpaceX’s final mission of the year, the company completed 134 orbital missions in 2024, deploying over 7,000 active Starlink satellites to establish a robust global mesh network. This aggressive fleet expansion significantly reduces data delivery costs, directly accelerating the technical and economic feasibility of continuous global NTN coverage.
Simultaneously, the emergence of Direct-to-Device (D2D) capabilities in consumer smartphones is transitioning satellite connectivity from a niche industrial utility to a mass-market standard. This trend drives growth by integrating satellite antennas directly into standard handsets, eliminating the need for proprietary hardware and facilitating automatic switching between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. According to Total Telecom in November 2024, Apple committed a total of $1.5 billion to expand satellite infrastructure for enhanced iPhone services, including a $1.1 billion deal with Globalstar. This consumer-centric demand is encouraging extensive cross-industry collaboration; GSMA Intelligence noted in December 2024 that the number of mobile operators formally entering the satellite space reached nearly 100, effectively covering 70% of the global mobile connections base.
Market Challenges
Complex regulatory frameworks and spectrum allocation issues constitute a significant barrier hampering the growth of the Global 5G NTN Market. Unlike terrestrial infrastructure which operates within clear national borders, non-terrestrial networks function on a global scale, requiring harmonization across disparate legal jurisdictions. Securing frequency rights is particularly arduous as satellite spectrum often overlaps with existing terrestrial services, leading to interference risks and prolonged technical negotiations. This regulatory fragmentation forces vendors to navigate a fragmented landscape of country-specific licensing requirements, which severely delays deployment timelines and escalates operational costs for stakeholders attempting to provide seamless cross-border connectivity.
The impact of these regulatory bottlenecks is evident in the substantial lag between initial industry interest and the actual delivery of active services. While the sector sees high levels of strategic cooperation, the rigorous compliance demands significantly slow the transition to operational status. According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association, in September 2025, only 34 mobile operators in 25 markets had successfully launched commercial satellite services. This low conversion rate underscores how intricate licensing and spectrum policies directly stifle market expansion and limit the availability of ubiquitous coverage.
Market Trends
The standardization of 3GPP Release-compliant NTN chipsets is driving the market away from proprietary technologies toward a unified, interoperable ecosystem. This technical evolution enables manufacturers to integrate satellite capabilities directly into standard 5G modems, allowing seamless connectivity across different vendors and networks without requiring specialized, non-standard hardware. The establishment of these rigorous technical baselines is essential for mass commercialization, as it ensures devices can reliably execute handovers between terrestrial and non-terrestrial signals. According to Keysight Technologies in November 2025, the company successfully validated the initial set of 5G New Radio NTN test cases for 3GPP Release 17, providing the first trusted certification path for device makers to verify compliance and accelerate market entry.
Concurrently, the commercial expansion of Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) over Non-Terrestrial Networks is unlocking new revenue streams by providing affordable global connectivity for remote industrial assets. Unlike high-bandwidth consumer applications, this trend targets low-power, wide-area use cases such as agricultural monitoring, maritime logistics, and utility infrastructure where terrestrial coverage is often unavailable. Operators are rapidly transitioning from pilot phases to active commercial deployments, securing binding contracts that validate the economic viability of satellite-based IoT solutions. According to Sateliot in May 2025, the company secured commercial contracts to connect over 300,000 IoT devices, representing more than 15 million AUD in recurring annual revenues, as it rolled out licensed NTN services to bridge regional connectivity gaps.
Key Players Profiled in the 5G NTN Market:
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp
- OneWeb Holdings Ltd.
- SES S.A
- Amazon.com, Inc.
- Telesat Corporation.
- Intelsat US LLC.
- Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Globalstar, Inc.
- Viasat, Inc.
- Lynk Global, Inc.
Report Scope: In this report, the Global 5G NTN Market has been segmented into the following categories:
5G NTN Market, by Type of Orbit:
- Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
- Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
- Geostationary Orbit (GEO)
5G NTN Market, by Component:
5G NTN Market, by End User:
- Telecommunications
- Aerospace & Defense
- Maritime
- Agriculture
- Transportation & Logistics
- Others
5G NTN Market, by Region:
- North America
- Europe
- Asia-Pacific
- South America
- Middle East & Africa
Key Attributes:
| Report Attribute | Details |
| No. of Pages | 180 |
| Forecast Period | 2025 – 2031 |
| Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 | $7.98 Billion |
| Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2031 | $46.99 Billion |
| Compound Annual Growth Rate | 34.3% |
| Regions Covered | Global |
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/r12knf
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