Samsung appears ready to take another cue from Apple and imitate the US company’s approach to incorporating satellite connectivity into handsets. Apple’s Emergency SOS feature is featured on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models thanks to a collaboration with Globalstar. The Galaxy S23 family will reportedly be able to use satellite communications thanks to a partnership between Samsung and Iridium.
With 66 satellites in low Earth orbit, Iridium provides phone and data services. There are rumours that you will be able to send text messages and small photos (in the hundreds of kbps) through satellite since the Galaxy S23 family will apparently be introduced. It appears that Samsung has finally overcame the technological obstacles that prevented satellite communications from being used with smartphones over the past two years.
The key issue was to miniaturise the antenna so that it can be put into a typical smartphone without increasing its size, as you may have thought if you’ve ever seen a dedicated satellite phone.
Given the tiny geographical area and extensive 5G coverage in Korea, Samsung doesn’t anticipate this function to be popular there. However, it believes it can succeed in North and South America, Europe, Russia, and China, particularly in areas with less developed infrastructure. The Galaxy S23 family will reportedly ship in the first week of February and will only employ a higher binned version of Qualcomm’s recently released Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU, according to prior leaks and reports.
