A new partnership between satellite phone company Iridium and chip giant Qualcomm will bring satellite connectivity to premium Android smartphones later this year.
This means that in places where there is no cellular coverage, cell phones can connect to passing satellites to send and receive messages.
Qualcomm chips can be found in many Android smartphones.
Apple announced satellite capability for the iPhone 14 in September 2022.
The service is currently only available for sending and receiving basic SMS in an emergency.
British smartphone maker Bullitt was the first to launch its own satellite service, beating Apple in the face. It’s also for emergencies and will be available in select territories at initial launch.
The new partnership will bring the same service to millions more smartphone users without tying them to any particular brand – but it will be up to the manufacturer to enable it.
Iridium is the original satellite phone system that sent its first satellite into orbit in 1997. In 2019 it completed an upgrade of its network of 75 spacecraft.
The satellites cover the entire globe and fly in low orbit about 780 km (485 miles) above the Earth, and groups of them can communicate and exchange data with each other.
Qualcomm said that the new feature, called Snapdragon Satellite, will initially only be built into its premium chips, so it’s unlikely to appear in budget devices.
But it will eventually roll out to tablets, laptops, and even vehicles, and also become a service that’s not limited to emergency communications — though there’s likely to be a fee for that.
Satellite connectivity is widely seen as the next frontier for mobile phones, as it addresses the problem of ’emergency spots’ – areas where there is no existing coverage. These are more common in rural or remote locations.
It has already been used successfully to provide broadband coverage by services such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Satellite broadband is fast and generally reliable, but more expensive than cable or fiber optic connections.
Use of the feature is subject to local government regulations as countries such as India and China prohibit the use of satellite phones.
