Previous week SpaceX has announced that it will bring the feature of satellite connectivity in partnership with T-Mobile. Following this, Google has also announced that it will also be able to provide satellite connectivity in the next version of Android which will be Android 14 and will help the partners to enable the technology.
The news has been come from Google’s Vice President of platforms and Ecosystems, Hiroshi Lockheimer. He recalled that it was strenuous to get 3G + Wi-Fi working on the first Android phone HTC Dream. This smartphone was also known by the name of T-Mobile G1.
Wild to think about user experiences for phones that can connect to satellites. When we launched G1 in '08 it was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working. Now we're designing for satellites. Cool! Excited to support our partners in enabling all of this in the next version of Android!
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) September 1, 2022However, one should note that satellite connectivity-based phones will not offer High- speed internet but instead works in those places where there is no cellular network and thus this will ultimately help in the emergency situations.
As per the T-Mobile, it will initially be going to support text messaging, MMS and selected messaging apps. The company also said that in the long term, they will also consider the supporting of data and voice. The initial beta by the network carrier is expected to start from sometime in late 2023.
And while the existing phones and android devices will receive the support, the including of the Operating System level support will be enormously helpful. Having that said, the well-known Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo also hinted that Apple is also working with the Globalstar to bring satellite connectivity to the iPhone 14 series. But the tech giant has to disable this feature in India, until it manages to get a legal permit in India.
