Qualcomm wants to one-up Apple with better satellite phone coverage

Mostly it’s just hype and vague hand waving. But we are working toward actual satellite cell service. No more worrying about coverage, or if the blackout shut down your close towers, (that happened to us in December). Actual any time anywhere cell coverage. It won’t be in ‘23 or even ‘24. I’m thinking the early ‘30s, but you can see the first bits now. 

DAalseth said:

Mostly it’s just hype and vague hand waving. But we are working toward actual satellite cell service. No more worrying about coverage, or if the blackout shut down your close towers, (that happened to us in December). Actual any time anywhere cell coverage. It won’t be in ‘23 or even ‘24. I’m thinking the early ‘30s, but you can see the first bits now. 

I’m thinking this will be more hype than anything, just like 5G has turned out to be. Just like fusion power generation has promised cheap, clean, non polluting energy for fifty years now. And it will be very expensive too.

lkrupp said:

DAalseth said:

Mostly it’s just hype and vague hand waving. But we are working toward actual satellite cell service. No more worrying about coverage, or if the blackout shut down your close towers, (that happened to us in December). Actual any time anywhere cell coverage. It won’t be in ‘23 or even ‘24. I’m thinking the early ‘30s, but you can see the first bits now. 

I’m thinking this will be more hype than anything, just like 5G has turned out to be. Just like fusion power generation has promised cheap, clean, non polluting energy for fifty years now. And it will be very expensive too.

Yeah 5G turned out for a lot of us to be a big nothing. But this would be a bigger shift. I remember when cell phones first came out in the ‘80s. they were expensive, and heavy, and only a very few had or could justify them. But nearly forty years later they are, for most people, what phones are, and landlines are rare. We likely are looking at a similer time scale. So maybe not the ‘30s, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them fairly widespread by the ‘40s. 

As far as fusion, yeah that seems to be on a slow track. As a couple of people pointed out, with the vast improvements in solar and wind generation, both getting their energy from the sun, we ARE using fusion power. Just the reactor is 93 million miles away. 

This is just another example of me too by Qualcomm how many Apple competitors raise their hand after Apple releases a product/feature to the general public with the ability of working in an practical easy to use manner. That is what puts them ahead of most of the me too me too Google, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Microsoft, who raise their hand me to me too, after an Apple innovation, Wall Street, analyst’s and so-called tech experts fall for me too me too every time, and in the same breath, say Apple doesn’t innovate and their overvalued.

When Apple first announced their new feature, I thought, this seems like a small feature outside hard core global explorers. But the more I thought about it could be the start of something big and sure enough the competition is now scrambling me too me too…..

"Or just possibly, the industry is again simply going wherever Apple leads. Considering that Android phones have so many features before theiPhone does, that seems peculiar -- but Apple did beat everyone to emergency messaging via satellite."

Technically speaking, Apple didn't beat everyone.

Huawei beat them to it with a phone (Mate 50 Pro) that had been delayed by a year due to sanctions. It was originally scheduled for release in September 2021. It was also technically more challenging as the Huawei phone connects to high orbit satellites.