Company Spotlight: Multiple Access Communications Limited
Multiple Access Communications Limited (MAC Ltd) is a pioneering company with a strong heritage and a future-focused approach to wireless design.
MAC Ltd is a Southampton-based company that has been delivering solutions to the global wireless industry for almost 40 years.
It was founded in 1986 by Professor Raymond Steele, one of the founding fathers of modern mobile radio communications, who was working at the University of Southampton at the time. He established the company to address the challenge of making mobile communications accessible to everyone.
Professor Steele invented the concept of the ‘microcell’ - small base stations mounted on lamp posts - to provide high quality, high-capacity coverage in dense urban areas. MAC Ltd’s early research in this area was crucial in understanding how signals would behave in an urban environment and how to build efficient cellular networks. Based on this work, the company produced the world’s first radio network planning tool for these environments.
Four decades later, MAC Ltd remains at the forefront of wireless technology. It is now owned and managed by four of Professor Steele’s former students, who were all recruited by him in the early years of the company. Under their leadership, the company has maintained its founding philosophy of taking on difficult challenges and handpicking their team to solve them.
The company, located on the Southampton Science Park, has grown into a leading design services company that specialises in software-defined radio (SDR), advanced digital signal processing and field programmable gate array (FPGA) design for modern wireless systems in both the defence and commercial sectors.
What sets MAC Ltd apart is its commitment to providing high quality design services to its customers rather than focusing exclusively on its own products. The company’s process typically begins with extensive modelling and simulation to explore how different techniques might perform in real-world conditions. Once a concept has been validated in a virtual environment, it is tested on hardware platforms using software-defined radio technology. The design is refined into a minimum viable product, ensuring that it meets the requirements for size, weight, power consumption, and cost.
One key area of focus is satellite communications, in which they have been involved for three decades. The emergence of new systems such as Starlink, OneWeb, and Kuiper has renewed interest in this sector. MAC Ltd tackles challenges such as link budget design, which is used to assess the amount of power needed to transmit from satellites to ground devices. MAC Ltd has developed techniques to enhance the signal and overcome impairments in the radio channel, ensuring they remain strong enough for effective reception. Additionally, they solve issues such as Doppler shift by developing signal processing techniques to track and correct frequency changes to ensure clear reception.
Another key challenge that needs to be addressed is the requirement to switch seamlessly between satellites as they move across the sky, a process known as satellite handover. There is also significant interest in methods to achieve direct-to-device communication - delivering satellite services directly to smartphones - which have very different requirements and constraints from static terminals.
The company is also deeply involved in position, navigation, and timing (PNT) solutions, a critical area for national infrastructure and security. By using ‘signals of opportunity’ from communication satellites, MAC Ltd is working to improve the resilience of PNT services, providing an alternative to traditional Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The company is currently part of a consortium developing robust solutions that will enhance timing accuracy for a variety of applications, including finance and telecommunications.
Beyond its technical achievements, MAC Ltd is committed to developing future talent in the field of wireless design. The company is actively involved in initiatives such as the UK Electronic Skills Foundation, sponsoring electronic engineering students and providing them with summer placements. This offers students practical experience through real-world projects. Some of these students go on to join the company after completing their degrees, ensuring a pipeline of talent coming through for their own business and for the industry as a whole.
Peter Gould, Managing Director of MAC Ltd, said: “As we approach our 40th anniversary, we remain firmly focused on the future. The wireless landscape is evolving rapidly, with new challenges emerging in areas such as AI-driven signal processing, low-power IoT networks, and quantum communication technologies.
Our approach to problem-solving, a dedication to pushing the boundaries of technology, and actively nurturing future talent, means we’re not only preserving the legacy of Professor Steele’s vision but playing a crucial role in shaping the future of wireless connectivity.”
If you are interested in MAC Ltd’s services, please email enquiries@macltd.com
