SpaceX and carrier T-Mobile announced at a joint event last week that they plan to connect smartphones directly to next-generation Starlink satellites so that users can access SMS and voice messaging services in areas where cellular service is not available.
While Apple is rumored to unveil a satellite communication system in the iPhone 14, now 9to5Google He writes that Google has announced that the next version of Android will also be equipped with such a system.
Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of platforms and ecosystems at Google, noting the difficulty of adding 3G and Wi-Fi to the first Android phone in 2008, announced that Android team members are designing the new version to be compatible with satellites and support satellite communication for ” The next version of Android is planned. In a conversation with 9to5Google, Google has confirmed that the next version will be Android 14. This operating system will probably arrive in the middle of 2023.
In fact, Google has confirmed that it is helping SpaceX implement its plans. SpaceX said next year it will send the second generation of Starlink satellites, which have very large antennas, into Earth orbit.
Lockheimer says the user experience of phones that have the ability to connect to satellites will be different from phones that connect to cellular networks. According to him, it is expected that there will be differences in speed, quality of connection and even interaction time.
In the new SpaceX service, two to four megabits of bandwidth are offered per cell area. Elon Musk He says that thanks to the satellite communication system, one to two thousand simultaneous voice calls or hundreds of thousands of text messages can be accessed in each cell area.
The satellite communication system in smartphones is used mostly in emergency situations, and T-Mobile says it aims to provide nationwide coverage so that there is no area without access to the communication system. T-Mobile said that the Starlink satellite communication service will support SMS and MMS and a few selected messaging applications.
According to Elon Musk, no additional equipment is needed to connect to the SpaceX satellite communication system, and phones currently available in the market can use the service.
It is said that Apple is looking to use a satellite communication system in the iPhone 14 series phones. These phones will be unveiled next Wednesday.
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