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Tampa, Fla. — British handset maker Bullitt said on Nov. 29 that it will release a smartphone capable of sending and receiving texts via satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) early next year.
The company has been working with chipmaker MediaTek for 18 months to develop a hybrid smartphone, which it says can connect directly to satellites when terrestrial networks are unavailable without the need for an external antenna.
The smartphone’s exact specifications will be revealed during the CES annual trade show in January, Bullitt co-founder Richard Wharton said. Space News.
Wharton said his solution is “constellation agnostic” and will use satellites from multiple operators that he declined to name.
Bullitt, which designs and manufactures rugged mobile phones under brand license from Motorola and heavy-duty vehicle specialist Caterpillar, expects to launch initial satellite coverage across North America and Europe in the first quarter of 2023, “with the rest of the world following soon.” only”
The smartphone will run on Google’s Android operating system and will also include satellite-enabled emergency SOS service as a capability. Apple launched on November 15 by Globalstar’s satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Unlike Apple’s service for its latest iPhones, which only features two-way texting with emergency services, Wharton said Bullitt users will be able to text back and forth with any other mobile phone on the satellite network.
Bullitt successfully tested this capability with MediaTek’s chip in October, he said. Further system and service tests are currently underway in North America and Europe ahead of commercial launch.
According to Bullitt, the initial time to connect to a GEO satellite and send a message will be about 10 seconds.
Under ideal conditions, Apple has said that current GlobalStar bandwidth constraints mean that a message sent via its satellite can take 15 seconds, and in other cases up to three minutes.
Californian startup eSAT Global is also developing a chip that enables smartphones to connect directly to GEO satellites.
The company has partnered to use unused capacity on Yahsat and Inmarsat satellites as it tries to persuade smartphone makers to modify their chipsets to tap into the network.
Other companies are developing similar ventures in LEO using proprietary chip technology or bespoke constellations that can connect to unmodified smartphones.
With enough satellites, LEO constellations promise lower latency in GEO than satellites farther from Earth, which is seen as an important advantage for high bandwidth capabilities, including voice and video calls.
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