Android: Provide connectivity for phones running this system via satellites in 2023

A new partnership between Iridium satellite phone company and electronic chip giant Qualcomm will provide satellite connectivity for Android smartphones later this year.

This means that mobile phones can call passing satellites to send and receive messages in places where there is no mobile phone coverage.

Qualcomm chips are found in many Android smartphones.

Apple announced the availability of a satellite feature for the iPhone 14 in September 2022.

But the service is currently only available to send and receive basic text messages in emergencies.

NEPAD will make the same service available to millions of other smartphone users without linking them to a particular brand, but the manufacturer will have to empower it.

Iridium represents the original satellite telephone system, sending its first satellite into orbit in 1997 and completing the upgrade of its network of 75 spacecraft in 2019.

Satellites cover the entire globe and fly in low orbit, about 485 miles (780 km) above the ground and groups of them can communicate with each other, passing data between them.

Qualcomm said that initially, the new feature, named Senaparagon Satellite, will only be integrated into its premium chips so they are unlikely to appear in budget devices.

But it will eventually be rolled out to tablets, laptops and even vehicles and will also become a service not limited to emergency communications, although there will probably be a charge for it.

Satellite communication is widely regarded as the next target for mobile phones because it addresses the problem of areas where there is no existing coverage and tends to be more common in rural or remote areas.

It has already been successfully deployed to provide broadband coverage “Broad Band” through services such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Satellite broadband services are generally fast and reliable but more expensive than cable or fiber connections.

The use of the feature will be subject to local government regulations as countries such as India and China ban the use of satellite phones.