Obviously, the satellite connection between Apple and its partner works wonderfully. The Cupertino company recently invested 1.5 billion more in the project. It now owns 20% of GlobalStar, which demonstrates Apple’s total confidence in this satellite communication project on iPhone.
Apple strengthens its satellite connection with GlobalStar
For two years, Apple has offered a satellite connection on the iPhone. A new communication system reserved mainly for emergency cases which allows messages to be sent and received in places where cellular connection is completely absent. To achieve such a feat, Apple partnered with GlobalStar, an American company specializing in satellite communications. A partnership about to take on another dimension.
Following a deal between the two companies, Apple is injecting an additional $400 million into GlobalStar and now owns 20% of the satellite company. A prepayment of $1.1 billion is also planned to improve infrastructure. Which gives us a total of 1.5 billion additional dollars.
With this money, GlobalStar promises a new satellite constellation, an expansion of terrestrial premises and a significant increase in global licenses for mobile satellite services. In other words, even more new features for the satellite connection on iPhone in the years to come.
Summary of satellite actions on iPhone:
- SOS via satellite: send a message to emergency services without a cellular connection during an emergency.
- Locate via satellite: Transmit your exact location without a cellular connection.
- iMessage via satellite: Send and receive iMessage, SMS and tapbacks with any contact via satellite.
- Roadside assistance via satellite: Transmit your exact position by satellite to a partner repair company. Currently only available in the USA and UK.
At the moment, all users who own an iPhone 14-15-16 can access the service for free. This won’t be the case forever, as Apple has already confirmed that it will be chargeable in the future. Bad news, although we know that it is prohibitively expensive to communicate via satellite infrastructure, especially if it is for millions of customers.
