Ligado said it inked deals with Ericsson and Sequans to build equipment for the satellite component of its planned network. Ligado said the companies would build equipment for LTE-M and NB-IoT network technologies running in Ligado’s 40 MHz of nationwide spectrum between 1500 MHz and 1700 MHz, the so-called L-Band.

Ligado described LTE-M and NB-IoT as 5G technologies, and said the move would help the United States “win the race to 5G.”

Those comments are likely geared toward wrapping Ligado’s network build-out efforts in the U.S. government’s 5G push, an effort that involves reworking network build-out regulations and freeing up additional spectrum in order to encourage private companies to build 5G services ahead of China. However, there is some debate as to whether LTE-M and NB-IoT network technology can be considered part of the 5G standard considering such technologies were primarily designed as an addition to the existing LTE standard. Indeed, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have all already launched LTE-M and NB-IoT networks nationwide mostly using their existing LTE spectrum and operations.

Nonetheless, Ligado promised that its new agreements with Ericsson and Sequans would allow Ligado to “to take advantage of the broad ecosystem that is developing around LTE-M and NB-IoT specifications” and that the companies “aim to conduct several 5G demonstrations in the near future.”