5G towers are still being rolled out across the planet, but that’s not stopping some companies from thinking about how to make next-gen connectivity work off the planet.

Zoom in: Satellite telecoms company Lynk Global, which has received $11 million in funding since its 2017 founding, plans to launch a 5G cellular base station into orbit no earlier than December 22 in what it claims is a first-of-its-kind test.

While terrestrial cell towers generally can only provide up to 25 miles of connectivity on average, Lynk’s tech would provide coverage from orbit, potentially filling in gaps where cell service is unavailable and eliminating any need for a separate satellite phone and subscription.

• Lynk will use the test to assess the viability of beaming 5G signals from space to standard 5G devices, like phones.
• The company has initially focused on 2G and 4G connectivity with the satellite it has deployed so far, and plans to ramp up production for a 5,000 satellite constellation in anticipation of 5G by 2026, Charles Miller, co-founder and CEO of Lynk, told Emerging Tech Brew.

Looking ahead...“Maybe four or five years from now, every phone will probably have 5G built into it, and we just want to be ready for that…We will be there when the mobile network operators say, ‘Hey, everybody’s got 5G, you’ll get better performance if you switch over to 5G,” Miller said. “We’re just staying ahead of the game.”

Keep reading about the 5G space race here.—JM

It’s been nearly 100 years since British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine company Margarine Unie merged to create CPG giant Unilever, and the company has evolved a lot since then, most recently using AI to advance its product portfolio.

Alberto Prado, Unilever’s head of R&D digital and partnerships, is leading this transformation. He told Retail Brew part of his strategy is introducing digital tools to the R&D process to make innovation “better, faster, and more effective.”

• That means a shift from physical to digital labs, using “in silico science” (aka experiments done on the computer).

“In digital, we can plan, discover, design, and optimize in ways that we cannot in the physical space,” Prado told us. “We can do that without friction, without constraints, and without the limitations of physics and the economics around the physical world.”

Work in progress: Of course, applying this technology to an over 100-year-old legacy company takes time and adjustment, Prado shared. The process involves finding not only scientists skilled in biology and chemistry, but those with expertise in data science and statistical analysis, and requires people to trust the outcome of these models over seeing the results IRL.

Read the full story from Retail Brew here.—EC

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

Currently, I am the senior director of carrier solutions and product marketing at Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT). I am responsible for interfacing with major network operators to understand their wireless technology roadmaps, technology plans, and spectrum position to drive future Telit product requirements.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

I’ve enjoyed working on several drone and unmanned aviation projects. These 5G-connected drones featured data sharing from ground controllers of a drone into a private cloud server that allowed real-life video streaming.

I also worked on projects that promoted public safety. We were able to give firefighters visibility before they entered wildfires on the US West Coast.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

I’m most optimistic about augmented reality (AR). You have AR in different verticals, such as the industrial sector. This is something that can be enabled by 5G technology as it requires large data to be transmitted, in addition to low latency. AR will contribute to increasing efficiency and the productivity in the factory thanks to new advanced tools like digital twins or augmented reality for workers through online maintenance of the machinery.

Even though I am excited about the benefits of having self-driving cars, I realize it’s not going to be normalized quickly due to the complexity as well as legal and ethical implications that we must deal with. We may be over a decade away before we start to see large numbers of auto-driven vehicles on our roads. I believe it will be very similar to aircraft autopilot where some type of human interaction is still needed.

Stat: Lensa, an “AI selfie” app and latest generative AI plaything, is skyrocketing in popularity. It saw 4 million installs in the first five days of December, the Washington Post reports, more than double the downloads it saw in all of November.

Quote: “I’m not saying that a deep correction like this…is always great news. I’m saying something slightly different, which is that it will force better founders to stick with what they’re doing…and it will force investors to think much less about momentum and much more about core differentiators.”—tech analyst Azeem Azhar, to us, on this year’s biggest tech stories

Read: The Atlantic’s inaugural 10 most promising innovations of the year, from modular nuclear to generative AI.

Read: If digital transformation is on the horizon for your business in ‘23, you can start strategizing for success today with IT Brew’s guide. Check it out.

The year may be winding down, but there’s no shortage of tech news these days. How well do you remember last week’s headlines?

Click here to play this week’s trivia.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Why Hyundai—and other automakers—want to sell you solar panels
• How the tech downturn could usher in an era of ‘healthier’ innovation
• OpenAI is also a startup investor—here’s its investment thesis