Summary

• Ericsson and MediaTek achieved stable outdoor positioning below 30 centimetres using standardised GNSS RTK over 5G.
• The system delivered correction data through both unicast and broadcast mechanisms defined by 3GPP.
• Higher-precision cellular positioning could support robots, drones, vehicles, and industrial systems requiring better accuracy than ordinary GNSS.

Mobile networks are moving beyond carrying data about where a device is to becoming part of the infrastructure that helps determine its position, with sufficient precision to support machines whose movements cannot depend on the several metres of uncertainty associated with ordinary satellite navigation.

Ericsson and MediaTek have completed an end-to-end test of GNSS Real-Time Kinematic positioning over a commercial 5G network, producing stable outdoor accuracy below 30 centimetres with a device’s built-in antenna. The implementation uses technology standardised through 3GPP Release 16 rather than a proprietary positioning system.

The companies distributed correction information through Ericsson’s 5G network to MediaTek modem technology, allowing the device to compensate for errors affecting conventional satellite positioning. Ericsson says centimetre-level results are possible with a geodetic-grade antenna, although the sub-30cm performance achieved with integrated hardware is more relevant to equipment intended for broader deployment.

Several metres of uncertainty can be sufficient when guiding a person towards a building, whereas industrial robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, and connected machinery may need considerably tighter knowledge of where equipment sits in relation to its surroundings.

The network carries the correction

RTK positioning uses information from reference stations to correct errors affecting global navigation satellite signals. Those corrections account for factors including atmospheric effects and satellite inaccuracies, allowing a receiving device to determine its position much more precisely than it could from uncorrected GNSS alone.

The Ericsson and MediaTek implementation is notable because that correction information travels through cellular infrastructure using mechanisms already defined by 3GPP. The test supported both unicast delivery to an individual device and broadcast distribution to multiple devices within the same coverage area.

Broadcast delivery is particularly relevant where fleets of machines need common positioning information. Rather than maintaining a separate correction connection for every robot, vehicle, or drone, a mobile network can distribute the data alongside ordinary connectivity.

That creates the possibility of treating precise location as another network capability rather than deploying an entirely separate positioning system around each industrial application.

5G acquires another industrial function

Telecoms suppliers have spent years presenting advanced and private 5G networks as infrastructure for factories, ports, logistics sites, mines, transport systems, and utilities, although many deployments have centred on reliable communications rather than functions impossible to deliver through other networking technologies.

Precise positioning gives the cellular network a more distinctive role because location becomes a service delivered beside connectivity. A mobile robot could potentially receive both its data connection and positioning corrections through the same network environment, simplifying some elements of infrastructure and improving interoperability between equipment suppliers.

Cellular RTK does not displace every existing industrial-location technology. Indoor sites may use ultra-wideband, machine vision, lidar, fixed sensors, or combinations of techniques, while GNSS-based approaches naturally depend on access to satellite signals and are best suited to outdoor environments.

Standardised 5G distribution instead adds another option where wide-area outdoor precision is needed. Ports, mines, construction sites, farms, utility networks, transport yards, and large campuses can cover areas where installing dedicated local positioning infrastructure becomes costly or cumbersome.

Accuracy has to survive real operations

The next test is operational rather than purely technical. A controlled validation showing sub-30cm accuracy establishes capability, but industrial use depends on whether performance remains sufficiently predictable across difficult radio environments, moving equipment, different device designs, weather, obstructions, and varying network conditions.

Commercial availability also matters. Network operators need a reason to deploy and maintain the positioning service, while equipment manufacturers need sufficiently broad support before designing products around the capability rather than treating it as an optional feature at selected locations.

MediaTek’s involvement addresses one part of that dependency because support has to exist inside device modems as well as network infrastructure. The test connected Ericsson’s network technology with modem hardware capable of processing the correction information in real time.

The demonstration therefore joins several layers that industrial 5G has sometimes struggled to align: an established standard, commercial mobile-network technology, compatible device silicon, and a measurable operational function. If operators can reproduce that combination reliably, cellular connectivity gains a role beyond transporting industrial data — it becomes part of the system telling machines where they are.