Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced at Mobile World Congress Barcelona its collaboration with Honor, Motorola, Nothing, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi to develop smartphones with satellite communication capabilities leveraging the recently unveiled Snapdragon® Satellite.
Snapdragon Satellite is the world’s first satellite-based two-way capable messaging solution for smartphones. It offers truly global coverage1 from pole to pole and can support two-way messaging for emergency use, SMS texting and other messaging applications—for a variety of purposes such as emergencies or recreation in remote, rural and offshore locations. The solution is supported by the low earth orbiting (LEO) and fully operational Iridium® satellite constellation, which enables low-power, low latency satellite connections utilizing weather-resilient L-Band spectrum.
“Our long-standing relationships with Honor, Motorola, Nothing, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi are rooted in innovations and delivering exceptional connectivity experiences to consumers,” said Francesco Grilli, vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “By incorporating Snapdragon Satellite into next-generation devices, our partners will be able to offer satellite messaging capabilities thanks to a mature and commercially available global LEO constellation, which can allow subscribers around the world to communicate outdoors with emergency service providers, as well as family and friends.”
Snapdragon Satellite will be available across all upcoming 5G Modem-RF systems and Snapdragon Mobile Platform tiers (from 8- to 4-tier) as the ecosystem matures. Beyond smartphones, Snapdragon Satellite is set to expand to other device categories in compute, automotive and IoT segments. As the ecosystem grows, OEMs and app developers will be able to differentiate and offer unique branded services taking advantage of satellite connectivity. Snapdragon Satellite is planned to support 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN), as NTN satellite infrastructure and constellations become available.