The mobile phone market is weak, and manufacturers compete with each other. Image shooting, AI, and folding screen have become selling points one after another. Today, satellite communication is expected to become the next trend.
Previously, in June 2022, the International Standards Organization 3GPP announced that the 5G Release 17 standard had completed the functional freeze. One of the important features was that the 5G protocol began to support non-terrestrial network communication (NTN), which means that satellite communication will become a part of 5G communication.
After the implementation of the standard, the communication chip company is ready. On February 27, at the World Mobile Communication Conference (MWC) in Barcelona, Qualcomm announced that it was cooperating with Glory, Motorola, Nothing, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi to develop smart phones with satellite communication functions for the Snapdragon Satellite solution.
Qualcomm introduced that Snapdragon Satellite is the world’s first satellite-based solution that can provide two-way message communication for smart phones. It provides true global coverage from the South Pole to the North Pole, and can support two-way emergency message communication, SMS messages and other message applications, such as emergency communication in remote areas, suburbs and maritime areas. The scheme uses Iridium low orbit satellite constellation system to realize low power consumption and low delay satellite connection.
Qualcomm did not disclose when the mobile terminal supporting Snapdragon Satellite will be launched in the future, but only mentioned that the future satellite communication scheme will cover all mobile SoC platforms, 5G modems and RF systems from Snapdragon 4 series to 8 series. In addition to smart phones, Qualcomm also plans to expand the Snapdragon Satellite to include computers, cars, the Internet of Things and other devices.
At the same time, MediaTek also displayed satellite communication solutions on MWC. MediaTek said that the first batch of smart phones using MediaTek satellite communication technology will also be launched and will be unveiled in succession this year. JDK has announced that 5G mobile phones have been connected to a LEO satellite with a simulated altitude of 600 km and a moving speed of 27000 km/h in the laboratory environment, which has verified the possibility of using 5G NTN technology for satellite communications.
According to MediaTek, the upcoming NR-NTN chipset will provide higher connection rate for the equipment, which is suitable for navigation and real-time communication applications. At the same time, its IoT-NTN scheme adopts independent chipset design, and equipment manufacturers can integrate two-way satellite communication technology into 5G and 4G devices such as smart phones. At present, the relevant mobile phone products of MediaTek and British mobile phone manufacturers Bullitt and Motorola have been announced, supporting the two-way satellite communication function of mobile phones.
Samsung, another major communications giant, also plans to support satellite communication technology. Samsung announced on the MWC that it plans to integrate 5G non-terrestrial network technology into its Exynos baseband chip. Its new standardized 5G non-terrestrial network modulation and demodulation technology will support two-way message transmission and image and video frequency sharing. Data will be sent to the near-Earth orbit satellite in space and sent back to the ground station first, and finally to the user’s equipment. Min Goo Kim, executive vice president of Samsung’s communication processor development team, said that Samsung plans to take the lead in promoting the ground-not-ground network hybrid communication ecosystem around the world to prepare for the arrival of 6G.
At a time of sluggish global mobile phone demand and fierce competition, mobile phone hardware lacks revolutionary changes, and mobile phone manufacturers need to find new selling points. Satellite communication was first launched by Apple iPhone 14 and Huawei Mate 50 models in 2022. Users can send text information and geographical location through satellite without ground network. This is also the first time that mass consumer mobile phones do not rely on external devices and directly integrate satellite communication functions. Apple uses the in-orbit satellites of Global Star, a US commercial satellite operation company, both of which are low-orbit communication satellites; Huawei uses the short message function of Beidou, a medium and high orbit positioning satellite.
Post time: Feb-28-2023