The prize feature of the iPhone 14 launched the biggest phone trend of 2023

 By David Lumb

January 27, 2023

The next time you're stranded in the middle of nowhere and find yourself in need of sending a text, you might be able to use low-Earth orbiting satellites to send an SOS from any device.

Apple introduced additional satellite texting capabilities to its smartphones with the iPhone 14 as a way to summon for assistance in crises, making it the first tech business to do so. The concept is straightforward: simply point your phone at the sky, align it with a satellite flying overhead, and text the appropriate authorities. You can even transmit GPS information.

Now that additional businesses are prepared to join in, satellite texting will open up new opportunities for the phone industry.

The year of mobile satellite connectivity is 2023, according to Avi Greengart, an analyst at the market research firm Techsponential. "Everyone is engaged in it. It is being done differently by everyone."

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just adding a satellite radio and a satellite messaging software to the phone. Just like cellular internet and phone services, low-Earth-orbiting satellite systems have operating and maintenance costs. After purchasing an iPhone, Apple has promised to provide free access to emergency services for two years. However, Apple has not specified what will happen after that. Other satellite messaging platforms have not yet been created, but it appears that consumers will be charged for the service.

The usefulness of this technology is without question. It has previously been mentioned in accounts of lives being saved. The issue is whether or not people will pay for it. If not, would satellite messaging eventually become obsolete, much like 3D TV?

Currently, satellite technology on mobile phones is only available in pricey cellphones like Apple's iPhone 14, which starts at $799, and is only used in emergencies. The technology is therefore a nice-to-have feature that the majority of phone users won't be able to use for a while. Nabila Popal, research director at IDC, is one of those who may never find themselves in a desperate scenario when the functionality might be useful. I don't recall the last time I went without cell service, Popal said.

Given the specialised nature of satellite messaging, Popal doesn't think the availability of it will influence users to choose one phone over another. Backcountry hikers, desert drag racers, and distant truckers who want to travel outside of cell range will undoubtedly find it appealing. For everyone else, though, it is not a crucial enough feature to make a hasty purchase.

Instead, it's more like an addition to the many other technology that current smartphones have already put together but which we previously had to carry separately in our bags, such as cameras and portable video games.

The condition of satellite messaging at the moment

When someone wants to make calls from the middle of the ocean, satellite phones have been available for decades and have even appeared in Steven Seagal's classic military movie Under Siege from 1992. In 2001's Jurassic Park III, a satellite phone was crucial in rescuing civilians from a dinosaur-infested island.

"The phone is not here. Obtain a phone! "Alan Grant, a seasoned dinosaur survivor, yells as a Spinosaurus attack nearly causes it to fall off a boat and into a river. Spoilers: He manages to grab it just in time and signal for assistance.

Though less dramatic, the real-world equivalents can be just as beneficial. To transmit phone signals to the ground, networks of hundreds of satellites orbit the Earth every 90 minutes or so. The first of these networks was Iridium, which began providing service in 1998. A dozen other satellite networks have continued to operate by providing connectivity to frequent travellers, but the idea recently gained popularity after Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX stole the concept to cover the entire planet with internet connectivity through its Starlink programme.

By purchasing a cumbersome feature phone that costs close to $900 and paying a premium of at least $50 for 5 minutes of talk time for service from businesses who possess a private network of satellites, you can still receive satellite phone coverage. However, because smartphone radios have improved to the point that they can now directly interact with satellites rather than depending on a separate — and sometimes huge — antenna, phone manufacturers are now include the capacity to use such orbital networks to transmit emergency messages.

Anshel Sag, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, stated that phone radios had "become so good today that you can incorporate satellite connectivity into a phone without having an external antenna."

Apple was the first among well-known smartphone manufacturers with its iPhone 14 range. The business teamed with GlobalStar, which only covers a portion of South America, Europe, the US, and Australia. Apple promised that new iPhone 14 owners would receive two years of service free of charge when they purchased the phone. However, the company only activates this feature in a select few nations on those continents and it only functions for emergency text messages sent outside (it won't reach deep inside buildings).

Qualcomm unveiled a new feature for Android phones earlier this month that would let users to send and receive text messages through satellites. It makes use of the Iridium network, and Qualcomm claims it will offer more worldwide coverage than Apple's services.

The Snapdragon Satellite service will initially just be for emergencies but will soon be able to send and receive social messages and even utilise data, maybe as part of a premium service. The business is leaving it up to phonemakers to decide whether to include the service at all in their phones or whether they should charge for the privilege; it won't be available currently and will appear in phones coming in the second half of 2023 that utilise Qualcomm's most recent premium processors. There are still a lot of questions.

There are also smaller companies with specialised products, such as Bullitt, which revealed its Motorola-branded rugged phone at CES 2023. The phone will go on sale in the first quarter of 2023 for an undisclosed price. Through connection partner Skylo, which rents time on current satellite constellations, Bullitt offers two-way satellite messaging. Although Huawei's reach has decreased over time, it did introduce its Mate 50 series of phones with satellite messaging using China's BeiDou satellite network one day before Apple unveiled the iPhone 14.

The main US carriers have all chosen their own satellite partners to ultimately give mobile service beyond the boundaries of their networks, though none has a set launch date yet. More individual phones coming out with their own notions of satellite messaging will probably follow.

According to experts, everyone is competing because they can see the potential value of offering satellite safety nets as a service. Apple could simply include it with its subscription services, such as the $17 Apple One bundle, $10 Apple Music Plus, and $7 Apple TV Plus. Carriers may utilise it to provide incentives for the most expensive subscription plans in the hope that those of us who are risk-averse will be prepared to pay more for assurance. The importance of alerting someone you're out of gas in the middle of the Gobi Desert, Death Valley, or the Adirondacks cannot be overstated, according to Techsponential's Greengart.

Is becoming the latest phone trend a negative thing?

It goes without saying that the phone business has a poor history of adopting new technology. Analysts generally agree that the shift to 5G wireless over the past two years has been disappointing, especially given the patchy coverage and occasionally poor speeds compared to our long-standing 4G LTE service.

Because it depends on the availability of satellites and the as-yet-untested strain of having numerous people transmitting help requests through them, satellite texting may be much more erratic than 5G was.

But the early indications are encouraging. In order to test its Snapdragon Satellite function, Qualcomm brought journalists outside of Las Vegas for CES 2023, and it was successful. In fact, anyone can test it out without sending an emergency message thanks to a demo mode in the phone's settings. CNET phone editor Patrick Holland tested Apple's Emergency SOS feature on his iPhone 14 and discovered that it worked.

Using satellites to support mobile networks and keep people in touch seems to be the next frontier. Even while most people will never use it, the capability nonetheless serves as a safety net, assisting more daring phone users who venture outside the range of cell towers or catastrophe survivors after mobile networks go down.

According to reports, the technology has already saved several iPhone 14 owners, including one guy who became lost while riding a snowmobile in Alaska above the Arctic Circle. Another incident included a couple who fell into a steep gorge in a Los Angeles forest and called for assistance using their iPhone. They were saved in less than 30 minutes. Emergency services would not have been alerted and "nobody would have known to hunt for them" if it weren't for the iPhone's satellite messaging capability, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Sgt. John Gilbert.

In order to go securely outside the coverage area of mobile networks, we no longer need to purchase bulky satellite phones. Many cellphones will soon have the ability to call for assistance, whether you've lost your way in the woods or are being assaulted by dinosaurs on a lonely island that you should have avoided.

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