According to the $22.7 million contract Globalstar, Inc. [Nasdaq:GSAT] signed an agreement with Ericsson Federal in which Ericsson will work with Globalstar to develop, implement and maintain a ground interface or core network system that will be installed at Globalstar's satellite gateway ground stations. The all Internet protocol (IP) based core network system is wireless 3G/4G compatible and will link the Globalstar radio access network to the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or Internet. The design of the new core network system has begun. The agreement represents the final significant ground network infrastructure component for Globalstar's next-generation of advanced IP-based satellite voice and data services.

Globalstar is now expected to turn its attention towards the design and development of its third-generation handsets, satellite machine to machine (M2M) devices and other terminals. The new ground network architecture is designed to support speeds of up to 1Mbps to the subscriber equipment and up to 256 Kbps to the satellites in a flexible all IP configuration. Services supported would include push to talk and multicasting, advanced messaging capabilities such as multimedia messaging or MMS, and mobile video applications and geolocation services. Subscriber terminal or handset considerations include smaller form factor designs with multi-band and multi-mode capability, GPS integration, as well as fixed phone, video units and car kits. New services and equipment will be backward compatible for current Globalstar subscribers.