Reliable communication has become an essential component of modern vehicles, particularly as connected services play a growing role in safety, navigation and emergency response. While today's vehicles primarily rely on terrestrial mobile networks, these cannot guarantee coverage in remote or sparsely populated areas. A new collaboration between HARMAN and Viasat aims to address this limitation by integrating satellite communications into future vehicles, ensuring that drivers remain connected even when conventional mobile networks are unavailable.

The partnership focuses on enabling in-cabin voice calls via satellite, allowing vehicle occupants to communicate during emergencies or other situations where cellular coverage is limited or non-existent. By complementing existing mobile communication technologies with satellite connectivity, the solution increases the resilience of connected vehicle services and extends their availability to more challenging operating environments.

This development reflects a broader trend in the automotive industry towards hybrid communication architectures that combine terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. As vehicles become increasingly connected, continuous communication is becoming a prerequisite for a growing range of services, including emergency assistance, remote diagnostics, over-the-air software updates and connected mobility applications. Satellite communications provide an additional layer of reliability, particularly for long-distance travel, rural roads and cross-border transport corridors where network coverage may be inconsistent.

The technology is especially relevant as Europe continues to strengthen its connected transport ecosystem. Future Intelligent Transport Systems will increasingly depend on resilient communication infrastructure capable of supporting both everyday mobility services and safety-critical applications. Integrating satellite connectivity into production vehicles could help ensure that connected services remain available regardless of location, contributing to greater reliability across the transport network.

The future of connected mobility will not depend on a single communication technology but on intelligent combinations of multiple networks working together. Satellite communications are becoming an increasingly important part of that ecosystem, helping create transport systems that remain connected when it matters most.

You can find the article here. HARMAN. HARMAN and Viasat Collaborate to Enable In-Cabin Voice Calls Over Satellite Communications [online]. Barcelona: HARMAN, 2 March 2026 [accessed 28 July 2026]. Available from:
https://news.harman.com/releases/harman-and-viasat-collaborate-to-enable-in-cabin-voice-calls-over-satellite-communications

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