Will the iPhone 14 Talk to Satellites?
The iPhone 14 may be able to send emergency SOS messages while in cellular dead zones by using satellite connectivity, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
This is a more reasonable version of the overheated rumors that swirled around the iPhone 13 about that phone having satellite connectivity. Those rumors turned out to be false.
Instead, the next iPhone, and a potential future Apple Watch, may have something like a SPOT satellite tracker in it. "The technology would allow users to send text messages to emergency personnel over satellite networks and report incidents," Gurman says. So far, devices with that capability tend to be relatively large and discrete, but Apple's innovation may be to miniaturize the technology enough to fit it into a phone.
Specialized satellite phones, as well as satellite-connecting accessories for your smartphone, have existed for years. They tend to be bulky and expensive, because they need more radio power than a standard cell phone does. Those talk to existing satellite systems like the Globalstar constellation, which orbits at about 876 miles and uses 25-year-old CDMA encoding technology.
But the advent of much lower-orbit satellites and cheaper launch vehicles like the SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have begun to change the game. Very low orbit satellites, such as the ones used by Starlink, are easier to contact than more faraway birds. It takes more of them to cover any given land area consistently, but that also greatly increases the data capacity of the overall constellation, as more satellites means more capacity. Starlink currently orbits at 340-350 miles and plans to orbit as low as 208 miles.
Two main companies are working on giving your phone satellite linkage: Lynk
Read more on pcmag.com
