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Apple will invest $1.5 billion in Globalstar to expand its satellite services

Pabio November 2, 2024

Apple has committed to investing about $1.5 billion in Globalstar, the company whose satellite network provides communications services to owners of the latest devices. iPhone.

Apple wants more services and capabilities from Globalstar, which will extend its lead as one of only two providers of satellite services to phone users. Google has partnered with Skylo to offer emergency satellite messages to Pixel 9 series owners in August. Other efforts in the telephone industry to offer satellite services have failed, and operators have not progressed beyond successful testing of messaging via partner satellite networks.

Currently, the owners of iPhone14, iPhone15 And iPhone16 models can, when outside of their mobile networks, use Globalstar satellites to reach emergency services via Emergency SOS. Recently, Apple extended this feature to include text messages. Apple coordinates these services through a combined network of Globalstar satellites and ground stations and, for now, offers them for free.

Learn more: I visited Google for a look at the Pixel 9’s Satellite SOS tool

With Apple’s $1.5 billion investment, Globalstar will launch a new satellite constellation and expand ground infrastructure, which is consolidated into a new “mobile satellite services” network, according to Apple’s release. the company. recent SEC filing. Apple will also increase its global mobile service licenses as part of an “extended MSS network” and Apple will pay upfront for customers to use some of these services.

Globalstar allocates 85% of its network for Apple’s use, the filing said.

Apple declined to comment on the nature of the investment or whether it would result in additional services for iPhone owners. Globalstar did not return a request for comment at the time of publication.

Beyond messaging, the next frontier for satellite services involves sending data – for example through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal – as well as voice calls and video chats.

U.S. carriers announced partnerships with satellite providers years ago to provide their customers with services beyond terrestrial 4G LTE and 5G networks, although they have not yet activated these services, at one exception: T-Mobile. The company, which first partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink in 2022, got last-minute federal approval for send alerts and provide emergency SMS via satellite to the victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton in October. In a earnings call in OctoberMike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile, said that during the hurricanes, the temporary service received hundreds of thousands of text messages sent to people that otherwise would not have been received.

Verizon, which had signed with Amazon satellite company Project Kuiper in 2021, said a new partnership with AST SpaceMobile in May. AT&T announced its own partnership with AST SpaceMobile in 2022 and confirmed a commercial agreement between the companies in May; AST SpaceMobile launched its first five commercial satellites in September, which will ultimately provide the service to operator customers.